IvIBRARY 

OF  THK 

University  of  California, 

Mrs.  SARAH  P.  WALSWORTH. 

Received  October,  i8g4. 
^Accessions  No.  sflcH  K:^   Class  No. 


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Pg  tl)e  mmt  ^tttljor. 
TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS : 

AN  ESSAY  IN  COMPARATIVE  THEOLOGY. 

pp.  X,  528.     1  vol.     8vo. 
Bevelled  boards      .      .      .      .      $3.00. 


\*  Sent,  post-paid,   on    receipt  of  price  by  the  Pub- 
lishers, 

JAMES  R.  OSGOOD  &  CO.,  Boston. 


COMMON-SENSE  IN  RELIGION 


A    SERIES    OF 


E  S  SAYS. 


BY 


JAMES    FREEMAN    CLAEKE. 

// 


i^iii^^ 


"3  r 


BOSTON: 
JAMES   R.  OSGOOD   AND   COMPANY, 

Lati  Tickxok  &  Fields,  and  Fields,  Osgood,  &  Co. 

1874. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1873, 

BY    JAMES    R.    OSGOOD    &    CO., 

in  the  Ofilce  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress,  at  Washington. 


University  Press  :  Welch,  Bigelow,  &  Co., 
Cambridge. 


PREFACE 


Ike  aim  of  this  volume  is  not  to  give  definite 
theological  results,  but  to  suggest  a  method  of  in- 
quiry. By  common-sense  we  mean  the  *  mode  of 
judgment  derived  from  experience  of  this  world; 
that  is,  of  God's  methods  in  nature  and  in  human 
life.  A  man  of  common-sense  is  a  man  whose  in- 
tellect is  trained  by  observation  of  human  nature 
and  the  course  of  events.  This  rule  of  judgment 
is  derived  from  observation  of  the  working  of  God's 
laws  in  this  world.  This  method  was  continually 
used  by  Jesus ;  why  should  it  not  be  applied  more 
fully  by  his  followers  in  their  studies  of  religious 
truth? 


CONTENTS 


PAcn 

I.  Common-Sense  and  Mtsteet         ....  7 

II.  Common-Sense  View  of  Human  Natuee  .        .  29 

III.  On  the  Doctrine  conceening  God       ...  61 

IV.  The  Bible  and  Inspiration      ....  83 
V.  The  teue  Meaning  op  Evangelical  Christianity  107 

VI.  The  Truth  about  Sin 123 

VII.   Common-Sense  and  Scripture  Views  of  Heaven 

AND  Hell 141 

VIII.  Satan,  according  to  Common-Sense  and  the  Bible  169 

IX.  Concerning  the  Future  Life       ....  189 

X.  The  Nature  of  our  Condition  hereafter     .  213 

XL  Common-Sense  View  of  the  Christian  Church     .  239 

XII.  Five  Kinds  of  Piety 271 

XIII.  Jesus  a  Mediator 289 

XIV.  The  Expectations  and  Disappointments  of  Jesus  311 

XV.  Common-Sense  View  of  Salvation  by  Faith      .  329 

XVI.  »0n  not  being  afraid 351 

XVII.   Hope 371 

XVIII.  The  Patience  of  Hope     .        .        .        .        .  891 

XIX.  Love 407 

XX.  The  Brotherhood  of  Man       ....  425 


L 

COMMON-SENSE  AND  MYSTERY, 


COMMON-SENSE  AND  MYSTERY. 

In  this  volume  I  propose  to  look  at  questions  of 
religious  truth  and  religious  culture  from  the  point 
of  view  of  common-sense.  I  do  not  undervalue 
other  tests  in  applying  this.  What  does  Scripture 
say  ?  What  does  the  church  say  ?  What  does  ab- 
stract reason  say  ?  —  these  questions  are  all  legiti- 
mate. But  it  may  also  be  well  to  supplement  these 
with  another  method  of  investigation,  taken  from 
the  common  analogies  of  earthly  life.  Jesus  thanked 
God  that  some  things,  hidden  from  the  wise  and 
prudent,  had  been  revealed  to  babes.  He  chose  for 
his  disciples,  not  theologians  like  Nicodemus  or 
Gamaliel,  not  men  learned  in  the  Scriptures  like  the 
scribes,  doctors,  and  lawyers,  but  men  who  had  only 
this  faculty  of  common-sense,  by  which  to  accept 
and  apply  truth.  We  may  thence  infer  that  he  did 
not  disapprove  of  a  common-sense  view  of  religion. 

Perhaps,  however,  it  may  be  necessary  to  indicate 
a  little  more  plainly  what  we  mean  by  common-sense 
in  this  relation. 
1* 


10  COMMON-SENSE  IN  RELIGION. 

Common-sense  is  not  a  special  power  of  the  human 
mind,  but  a  method  of  judgment  derived  from  ex- 
perience. It  consists  of  those  habits  of  thinking 
which  have  resulted  from  life,  and  have  been  veri- 
fied by  life. 

Nor  by  common-sense  do  I  mean  the  uneducated 
or  miseducated  heathen  judgment,  but  the  educated 
Christian  judgment.  We  did  not  bring  into  the 
world  our  common-sense ;  we  have  acquired  it  here. 
Common-sense  differs  in  different  countries,  times, 
nations,  religions,  civilizations.  The  common-sense 
of  a  Feejee-Islander  teaches  him  that  it  is  right  and 
natural  to  eat  men  and  women,  a  course  of  action 
which  is  revolting  to  our  common-sense.  The  com- 
mon-sense of  the  Middle  Ages  taught  that  it  was 
wise  and  right  to  burn  heretics  and  witches  alive, 
which  our  common-sense  abhors.  What  we  think 
a  natural  and  instinctive  judgment  is  often  an  edu- 
cated judgment,  —  the  result  of  opinions  which  fill 
the  air,  which  we  imbibe  in  childhood,  which  saturate 
literature,  which  are  the  commonplaces  of  conver- 
sation, and  the  staples  of  public  opinion.  Our  com- 
mon-sense in  America  tells  us  that  all  the  people 
should  vote  on  great  public  questions,  and  elect  their 
own  rulers ;  but  two  or  three  hundred  years  ago  the 
conmion-sense  of  Europe  affirmed  the  divine  right  of 


COMMON-SENSE  AND   MYSTERY.  11 

kings  to  govern,  and  the  duty  of  subjects  to  submit 
and  obey. 

When,  therefore,  I  speak  of  common-sense  in 
theology,  I  mean  that  part  of  Christian  truth  which 
has  been  taken  up  into  the  average  mind  of  Christen- 
dom. I  mean  those  ideas  of  right  and  wrong,  of  God's 
character  and  man's  duty,  into  which,  by  slow  and 
various  processes,  the  Christian  world  has  at  last 
been  educated.  I  mean  those  great  underlying  prin- 
ciples of  truth  which  pervade  the  New  Testament, 
giving  it  its  vital  power.  When  we  appeal  to  this 
tribunal,  we  are  appealing  from  the  letter  of  Chris- 
tianity to  its  spirit,  and  from  traditional  notions  to 
living  and  working  principles  and  ideas. 

Perhaps  I  may  be  found  fault  with  for  the  title 
given  to  this  book,  and  it  may  be  said  that  I  ought 
not  to  speak  of  a  common-sense  view  of  religion,  but 
rather  of  a  Scripture  view  or  a  Christian  view.  This 
objection  must  assume  that  a  Scripture  view  or  a 
Christian  view  cannot  be  a  common-sense  view. 
But  that  I  deny.  My  object  is  to  show  that  the 
doctrines  taught  by  Christ  and  his  Apostles  are  ex- 
actly in  accordance  with  common-sense ;  and  if  any 
views  are  taught  by  any  persons  which  are  not  in 
accordance  with  common-sense,  such  views  are  also 
opposed  to  the  teaching  of  Christ. 


12  COMMON-SENSE  IN  RELIGION. 

In  this  sense,  the  New  Testament  is  full  of  com- 
mon-sense, especially  in  the  Gospels  and  the  teach- 
ings of  Jesus.  Jesus  makes  all  his  teaching  clear, 
and  fortifies  his  statements  by  illustrations  drawn 
from  the  common  life  of  man.  What  are  the 
parables  but  a  continual  application  to  the  high- 
est truths  of  the  homeliest  illustrations  ?  Homely 
no  longer  to  our  minds,  perhaps,  because  glorified 
by  such  hallowed  associations ;  but,  when  first  spoken, 
how  familiar  they  must  have  seemed  !  The  dough 
standing  to  rise  in  the  bread-trough  illustrated  the 
silent  working  of  truth  in  society ;  the  seeds  falling 
on  different  kinds  of  soil,  the  degrees  of  receptivity 
of  the  human  soul;  the  bird,  falling  dead  from  the 
air,  the  perpetual,  universal  providence  of  God ;  the 
parent,  giving  bread  to  his  children  at  their  meals, 
the  influence  of  the  Holy  Spirit ;  the  lightning,  seen 
all  round  the  sky  at  once,  the  coming  of  a  universal 
religion  :  —  by  such  illustrations  Jesus  perpetually 
appealed  to  the  common-sense  of  his  liearers  in  sup- 
port of  his  teaching.  He  also  appealed,  sometimes, 
to  their  Scriptures,  and  occasionally  he  met  reasoning 
by  reasoning.  But  most  frequently  he  taught  by  this 
reference  to  common  life,  so  recognizing  the  analogy 
between  God's  laws  in  nature,  in  society,  and  in  the 
souL 


COMMON-SENSE  AND   MYSTERY,  13 

The  Christian  Church  has  usually  preferred  the 
authority  of  Scripture  to  that  of  common-sense ;  and 
would  perhaps  regard  it  as  below  its  dignity  to  follow 
its  Master  on  this  too  familiar  path.  But  it  may 
be  permitted  sometimes  to  lay  aside  our  scholastic 
habits,  and  appeal  in  religion  to  the  daily  business 
of  mankind.     Tliis  is  what  we  shall  attempt  here. 

We  do  not  claim  infallibility  for  the  judgments  of 
common-sense,  more  than  for  those  of  theology  in 
any  other  form.  But  they  have  this  advantage,  at 
least,  that  they  embody  the  general  judgment  of 
mankind ;  they  tell  us,  not  what  any  individual 
thinks,  but  what  the  human  race  thinks.  Every 
private  judgment  is  partial,  more  or  less  one-sided ; 
but,  put  together  the  common  opinions  of  educated 
men,  and  these  partial  views  neutralize  each  other,  — 
the  plus  and  minus  quantities  cancel  each  other,  and 
the  resultant  opinion  is  the  common-sense  of  all. 

If  you  could  ascertain  the  real  experience  of 
twenty  thinking  persons  upon  any  question,  there 
would  be  more  common-sense  in  it  than  in  the  opin- 
ion of  any  one  of  them.  But  if  you  could  obtain  the 
view  of  a  hundred  or  a  thousand,  it  would  approach 
still  more  nearly  to  the  standard  of  common-sense. 

The  judgments  of  common-sense,  when  once  ob- 
tained, are  irrevocable.     It  is  the  great  court  of  final 


14  COMMON-SENSE  IN   RELIGION. 

appeal  in  human  affairs.  It  moves  slowly,  but  surely, 
taking  no  step  backward.  The  inspirations  of  genius 
soar  higher  and  go  deeper ;  they  reveal  to  us  a  glory, 
a  beauty,  a  truth,  which  common-sense  can  never  at- 
tain to.  But  they  also  sometimes  dazzle,  confuse, 
mislead ;  and  common-sense  can  often  decide  on  the 
truth  and  falsehood  of  what  it  could  never  originate. 
Thus,  common-sense  could  never  have  produced 
either  the  plays  of  Shakespeare  or  the  comments 
of  the  critics  upon  them ;  but  it  is  quite  able  to 
enjoy  one  and  ignore  the  other.  It  could  not  have 
written  Hamlet  nor  Sir  John  Oldcastle ;  but  it  can 
decide  which  is  Shakespeare's  and  which  not.  By 
some  process  of  its  own  it  distinguishes  between 
truth  and  falsehood,  right  and  wrong,  good  and  evil. 
Error  may  endure  for  a  night,  but  common-sense 
cometh  in  the  morning  and  sends  it  away.  All  sorts 
of  foUies  may  be  fashionable  for  a  while ;  but  com- 
mon-sense arrives  at  last  with  its  plain  judgment, 
and  they  come  to  an  end.  So,  if  we  could  only 
obtain  at  once  the  full  verdict  of  the  common-sense 
of  all  men  on  any  subject,  we  should  have  a  very 
sufficient  tribunal.  But  here  lies  the  difficulty  :  how 
are  we  to  get  it  ?  One  way,  and  a  sure  one,  is  to 
wait —  until  the  world  has  made  up  its  mind.  But, 
as  the  world  is  often  very  slow  in  making  up  its 


COMMON-SENSE  AND   MYSTERY.  15 

mind,  and  sometimes  allows  generation  after  gener- 
ation to  die  in  its  error  before  it  finally  rejects  and 
condemns  the  error,  we  cannot  afford  to  wait. 

There  is  a  second  method.  Democracy,  which  is 
based  on  faith  in  common-sense,  puts  everything  to 
the  vote,  and  accepts  the  judgment  of  the  majority  as 
that  of  public  opinion.  And  it  is  so,  in  the  long  run ; 
but  the  majority  is  often  influenced  for  the  time 
by  prejudice,  passion,  and  interest.  The  majority  is 
often  ignorant,  and  does  not  care  to  be  enlightened ; 
then  it  does  not  represent  public  opinion,  for  it  does 
not  represent  any  opinion.  What  is  the  opinion  of  the 
voting  majority  in  New  York  on  public  measures  ? 
They  have  none,  —  they  merely  vote  as  they  are 
directed  by  their  leaders.  Before  the  vote  of  the 
majority  becomes  the  expression  of  public  opinion, 
and  so  of  common-sense,  it  has  to  be  enlightened; 
and  that,  again,  is  a  long  process. 

A  shorter  way  to  get  at  the  judgment  of  common- 
sense  is  to  obtain  the  views  of  those  men  in  whom 
it  is  most  fully  embodied.  Some  men  seem  incar- 
nations of  the  common-sense  of  the  human  race,* 
and  hence  their  perpetual  popularity.  The  Fables 
of  ^sop,  the  Proverbs  of  Solomon,  are  the  sense  of 
mankind  crystallized  into  gems  which  shall  forever 

*  Dr.  Franklin,  for  example. 


16  COMMON-SENSE  IN  EELIGION. 

sparkle  on  the  forefinger  of  old  Time.  We  can  take 
such  judgments  and  apply  them  to  present  affairs. 
"We  can  test  the  controverted  questions  of  to-day  by 
the  analogy  of  othet  questions  which  common-sense 
has  already  decided.  These  precedents  constitute  th6 
common  law  of  mankind.  We  try  what  is  before 
us  by  the  analogy  of  experience,  which  thus  obtains 
(as  Milton  says)  a  certain  prophetic  quality. 

Theology  has  hitherto  been  held  to  be  outside  of 
this  jurisdiction.  Theology  has  been  supposed  to  be 
a  special  study,  like  the  higher  mathematics,  of 
which  the  results  are  to  be  accepted  on  the  authority 
of  theologians, — just  as  we  accept  the  conclusions 
of  Laplace,  though  we  cannot  understand  his  pro- 
cesses. Theology  has  been  regarded  as  a  sealed  book : 
the  ignorant  man  must  not  have  an  opinion  about  it, 
because  he  is  ignorant;  the  learned  man,  because  it  is 
sealed.  However,  all  this  is  passing  by.  Everything 
to-day  is  open  for  examination.  Let  examination  be 
careful,  conscientious,  reverential,  and  no  opinions 
are  too  sacred  to  be  examined.  Truth  gains  always  by 
such  investigation.  It  is  much  better  for  it  to  rest  on 
conviction  than  assent.  It  will  not  do  now  to  say, 
"  These  are  mysteries  too  sacred  for  examination." 

What  is  a  conviction  worth  which  cannot  be  tested  ? 
I  think  religious  people  often  treat  their  beliefs  as 


COMMON-SENSE  AND  MYSTERY.  17 

Don  Quixote  treated  his  armor.  He  first  tried  it  by 
a  good  heavy  blow  of  his  sword,  delivered  with  his 
whole  strength  against  his  helmet ;  this  blow  cut  the 
visor  off,  and  undid  in  a  moment  the  work  of  a  week. 
So  he  mended  it,  and  made  it  stronger ;  but  conclud- 
ed not  to  try  it  again,  but  to  let  it  pass  for  a  good, 
strong  helmet  without  further  experiment.  So  it  is 
with  the  creeds ;  people  debate  them  for  a  while,  and 
then  conclude  not  to  try  them  any  more,  but  to  take 
for  granted  that  they  are  sound  and  strong. 

I  do  not  know  of  any  opinion  so  sacred  as  truth. 
There  is  no  belief  which  is  too  holy  to  be  examined. 
Let  it  be  examined  in  a  serious  and  earnest  spirit,  — 
but  let  everything  be  tested. 

But  are  there  not  mysteries,  it  is  asked,  in  religion, 
which  must  be  believed,  though  they  cannot  be  under- 
stood ? 

Let  us  look  at  this  question. 

Certainly  common-sense  tells  us  that  the  world  is 
full  of  mystery. 

If  we  could  go  out  into  space,  outside  the  earth's  at- 
mosphere, —  say  a  million  of  miles,  —  we  should  find 
ourselves  surrounded  by  an  abyss  of  darkness  ;  night 
above,  below,  around ;  night  everywhere,  with  its 
myriad  stars.  The  sun  is  on  one  side,  burning,  an 
intense  globe  of  light,  —  too  intense  to  look  at,  —  but 


18  COMMON-SENSE   IN   KELIGION. 

no  blue  sky,  no  reflected  light,  no  gradations  of  sun- 
rise and  sunset,  of  half-seen  objects.  Nothing  is  any- 
where but  the  brightest  light  and  the  blackest  dark- 
ness. Such  would  our  life  be  without  mystery. 
Mystery  is  the  twilight  of  the  intellect ;  the  step  out 
of  darkness  into  light;  the  half-way  house  between 
total  ignorance  and  distinct  knowledge.  It  is  what 
we  know  in  part,  what  we  half  see,  what  we  see  in  a 
glass,  darkly.  It  is  not  light ;  but,  like  John  the 
Baptist,  it  is  sent  to  bear  witness  of  the  light.  It 
draws  our  attention  from  the  things  which  are  seen 
to  those  which  are  not  seen.  It  awakens  wonder  and 
awe,  then  curiosity,  next  inquiry,  and  so  promotes 
progress.  It  does  not  shut  the  door  of  thought,  but 
opens  it.  It  does  not  forbid  investigation,  but  stimu- 
lates the  mind  to  inquire. 

Take,  for  example,  the  mysteries  of  astronomy. 
When  man  first  looked  at  the  sun  and  stars,  all  was 
mystery.  Their  size,  their  distances,  their  paths,  their 
substance;  it  was  all  wonderful,  and  all  obscure. 
The  wonder  excited  his  mind  ;  curiosity  prompted  to 
inquiry.  By  degrees  he  learned  to  know  the  sublime 
laws  by  which  planets  move  along  their  vast  orbits ; 
he  learned  to  measure  their  motion  and  calculate  their 
return.  He  watched  the  distant  comet  journeying  to- 
ward the  sun,  coming  from  outer  darkness  into  the 


COMMON-SENSE  AND   MYSTERY.  19 

very  edge  of  the  solar  furnace,  and  then  whirling  away 
again  into  the  cold,  void  abyss  of  space.  He  discov- 
ered the  far-off  planet,  —  too  far  to  be  visible  to  the 
eye;  discovered  it  by  its  influence  trembling  along 
the  orbits  of  the  other  planets  nearer  the  sun,  as 
you  detect  the  approach  of  a  stranger  by  the  changing 
expression  of  your  friend's  face  as  you  talk  with  him. 
He  learned  to  analyze  the  ray  of  light,  coming  from 
the  farthest  star,  and  tell  what  elemental  substances 
are  burning  there  in  the  fury  of  that  remote  flame. 
So  knowledge  advances  and  mystery  retires.  But  as 
one  mystery  is  explained  another  mystery  appears  be- 
hind it,  to  prompt  to  new  inquiry.  The  universe  has 
not  become  less  an  object  of  awe  and  wonder  because 
of  the  progress  of  science,  but  more  so.  First  we  had 
wonder  alone ;  then  the  wonder  produced  inquiry ; 
inquiry  resulted  in  knowledge ;  and  knowledge  ex- 
cites to  greater  wonder  than  before. 

And  have  not  the  results  of  the  study  of  geology 
been  the  same  ?  Formerly,  the  earth  was  supposed 
to  be  only  six  thousand  years  old,  and  to  have  been 
made  in  six  days.  But  the  mysterious  fossil  remains 
and  the  symmetrical  rock  strata  excited  curiosity,  led 
to  inquiry,  and  inquiry  to  discovery.  We  see  that 
the  earth  has  passed  through  a  long  succession  of 
changes,  —  has  been  a  mass  of  liquid  fire,  of  rolling 


20  COMMON-SENSE  IN   RELIGION. 

waters,  of  continents  covered  with  ice ;  has  been 
peopled  by  various  strange  animals  and  curious 
plants ;  has  had  its  successive  faunas  and  floras. 
The  six  thousand  years  have  expanded  into  millions  ; 
the  six  days  of  creation  have  turned  into  mighty 
geologic  epochs.  And  what  has  been  the  result  ? 
Has  awe  disappeared,  has  it  become  less  wonderful, 
because  of  this  enlarged  knowledge  ?  "No ;  but  far 
more  so.  Over  this  vast  creation,  stretching  through 
a  myriad  of  years,  the  morning  stars  still  sing  to- 
gether, and  the  sons  of  God  still  shout  for  joy. 
Before,  we  stood  by  the  side  of  a  little  pond,  and 
called  it  God's  universe  ;  now,  we  sail  day  after  day, 
over  this  vast  sea  of  knowledge,  but  find  God's 
majesty  and  power  and  love  still  expanding  around 
us,  on  every  side,  into  a  limitless  ocean. 

And  so,  too,  the  profounder  mysteries  of  our  human 
life  arouse  the  mind,  awaken  it  to  an  undying  ac- 
tivity, make  us  look  in,  look  up  and  around.  The 
great  mystery  of  evil,  insoluble  though  it  be,  is  a 
door  not  wholly  shut  against  us,  but  left  a  little  way 
open.  We  ever  see  good  dawning  out  of  evil,  evil 
changing  into  good,  —  man  going  through  earthly 
sorrow  into  heavenly  joy.  Thus,  we  .  cannot  under- 
stand why  God  should  permit  such  horrors  as  those 
of  the  Chicago  fire,  and  the  conflagration  of  woods. 


COMMON-SENSE  AND  MYSTEEY.  21 

prairies,  farms,  villages,  causing  so  many  families  to 
be  driven  helpless  from  their  homes.  It  is  a  mystery. 
But  we  find,  coming  out  of  this  darkness,  some  rays 
of  light.  We  see  the  whole  nation  roused  to  sym- 
pathy and  generosity;  the  sufferers  showing"  the 
noblest  courage,  patience,  faith.  Before  the  fire,  the 
people  of  Chicago  and  the  people  of  the  Union 
were  not  in  as  high  a  state  of  soul  as  they  were 
after  it.  So  earthly  sorrow  turns  to  heavenly  joy ; 
as  black  decaying  soil  is  changed,  by  the  chemistry 
of  nature,  into  the  tender  beauty  and  fragrance  of 
violets  and  roses. 

Deeper  than  the  mystery  of  pain  and  sorrow  id 
that  of  sin.  It  is  the  great  horror  of  life,  the  fatal 
discord  in  our  world.  Man,  the  highest  of  all  our 
creation,  alone  of  this  creation  is  capable  of  sin. 
The  obedient  horse  and  faithful  dog  cannot  sin. 
They  obey  always  the  laws  of  their  being.  Man 
alone,  gifted  with  freedom,  is  free  to  do  Avrong  as 
well  as  right.  Made  a  little  lower  than  the  angels, 
he  can  descend  much  lower  than  the  brutes.  But 
even  tliis  mystery  is  partially  resolved  by  Chris- 
tianity. Where  sin  abounds,  grace  yet  more  abounds. 
It  is  through  our  sins  that  we  find  our  way  to  come 
most  closely  to  God.  No  one  feels  the  love  of  God 
so   much  as   does   the   pardoned    sinner.      As    the 


22  COMMON-SENSE  IN  RELIGION. 

alchemy  of  nature  changes  death  and  decay  into  life 
and  beauty,  so  the  alchemy  of  Christianity  changes 
sin  into  repentance  and  faith.  It  creates  a  more 
profound  humility  and  a  more  entire  trust  than  any- 
thing else  can  do.  Thus,  even  here,  we  see  that 
mystery  leads  to  the  most  profound  knowledge^  — 
to  the  knowledge  of  God  and  of  ourselves. 

All  the  mysteries  spoken  of  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment are  of  this  kind.  They  are  secrets,  hidden 
from  the  foundation  of  the  world,  but  now  partially 
revealed.  They  are  not  sent  us  to  prevent  inquiry, 
but  to  rouse  thought  and  quicken  faith.  The  chief 
of  these  mysteries,  to  the  Jews,  was  the  fact  that 
the  Gentiles  were  allowed  to  be  Christians.  To  a 
regular,  old-fashioned,  conservative  Jew,  who  hated 
any  newfangled  notions,  it  was  a  great  mystery  that 
Seneca  or  Plato  should  be  allowed  to  believe  in  God 
and  be  saved.  It  shocked  aU  his  preconceived 
notions.  So,  likewise,  the  resurrection  of  the  dead, 
in  its  Christian  form,  was  a  mystery.  "Behold,  I 
show  you  a  mystery,"  says  Paul ;  "  this  corruptible 
must  put  on  incorruption ;  this  mortal  must  put  on 
immortality."  At  death,  we  do  not  go  down  into 
Hades,  but  up  to  God  and  his  angels ;  that  was  a 
mystery  revealed,  and  so  taken  out  of  the  category  of 
mystery,  by  revelation. 


COMMON-SENSE  AND   MYSTERY.  23 

Ah,  that  great  mystery  of  death  !  How  silent  have 
all  the  dear  voices  become,  which  lately  were  music 
in  our  ears !  Where  have  those  loved  ones  gone  ? 
What  are  they  doing  ?  the  fathers  and  mothers ; 
the  wives  and  husbands ;  the  sweet  children ;  the 
noble  friends,  who,  a  little  while  ago,  told  us  all  that 
was  in  their  hearts.  How  deep  is  the  voiceless  hush 
of  that  world  I  Why  cannot  we  talk  with  them 
across  this  abyss  ?  Why  may  not  we  hear  one  word 
to  tell  us  that  they  love  us  still  ?  Between  us  and 
them  there  is  a  great  gulf  fixed.  There  are  those 
who  believe  that  spirit  voices  are  heard  across  it,  and 
I  am  glad  if  they  get  any  comfort  out  of  that  belief; 
but  these  voices  do  not  sound  to  me  much  like  the 
voices  we  used  to  hear,  nor  do  they  tell  us  a  great 
deal.  Their  tones  are  rather  unnatural.  Only  one 
voice,  hitherto,  has  retained  its  old  tone :  the  one  that 
said  "  Mary,"  in  that  early  twilight ;  the  one  that 
said  "  Peace  be  unto  you,"  in  that  evening  meeting  ; 
the  one  that  said  "Come  and  dine,"  on  the  lake 
shore  of  Galilee.  But  that  voice  has  thrown  light 
into  the  darkness,  and  has  told  us  of  the  many  man- 
sions in  the  house  of  God,  assuring  us  of  a  world 
beyond  this  world,  as  good  at  least  as  this,  as  rich  in 
beauty,  in  action,  in  thought,  and  in  love. 

The  error  of  theologians  is  to  suppose  that  we  ever 


24  COMMON-SENSE  IN  RELIGION. 

can  or  ought  to  believe  the  mysterious  part  of  any- 
thing in  nature  or  revelation.  The  mysterious  part 
is  the  very  part  which  we  do  not  yet  believe.  Let 
me  illustrate  this. 

I  am  told,  let  us  suppose,  to  believe  the  doctrine 
of  the  Trinity,  or  that  there  are  three  persons  in  one 
God.  I  ask  to  have  the  proposition  explained.  What 
is  meant  by  "  person "  ?  Am  I  to  understand  the 
term  in  its  usual  sense  as  applied  to  men  ?  Are  the 
Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Spirit  as  distinct  from  each 
other  as  Peter,  James,  and  John  ?  The  answer  is, 
"  Certainly  not ;  for  this  would  be  tritheism.  It 
would  be  equivalent  to  a  belief  in  three  deities,  only 
morally  united."  Do  you  then  mean  by  person 
only  manifestation  or  personification  of  the  Divine 
attributes  ?  "  Certainly  not ;  for  this  would  be  only 
the  heresy  of  Sabellius."  What  then  do  you  mean  ? 
"  We  cannot  tell.  It  is  a  mystery."  But  to  this  I 
rejoin  that  I  am  unable  to  believe  any  proposition 
the  terms  of  which  are  unintelligible.  You  might  as 
well  put,  in  the  place  of  "person,"  a  Sanskrit  or 
Chinese  word,  if  you  are  unable  to  give  to  it  any 
definite  meaning. 

"  But  you  believe  many  things  you  do  not  under- 
stand. You  believe  that  the  grass  grows,  and  you 
do  not  understand  how  it  grows."     True  ;  and  there- 


COMMON-SENSE  AND   MYSTERY.  25 

fore  I  do  not  believe  anything  about  the  "how." 
I  understand  the  proposition,  "The  grass  grows," 
and  I  believe  it.  I  do  not  understand  how  it  grows, 
and  I  do  not  believe  anything  about  it.  Where  the 
mystery  begins  the  belief  ends. 

So  as  to  the  union  of  soul  and  body.  That  also  is 
a  profound  mystery.  That  the  soul  and  body  are 
united  is  a  plain  and  intelligible  proposition  ;  and  we 
all  believe  it.  How  they  are  united  is  a  mystery; 
and  we  believe  nothing  about  it.  Where  the  mystery 
begins  the  belief  ends. 

When,  therefore,  theology  offers  us  as  a  mystery 
some  unintelligible  or  contradictory  doctrine  of  its 
own  manufacture,  and  tells  us  that  these  are  awful 
mysteries,  and  to  be  accepted  as  such  in  spite  of  all 
that  reason  can  say  against  them,  we  reply,  —  com- 
mon-sense replies,  —  they  are  not  mysteries,  they  are 
absurdities.  They  are  not  above  reason,  they  are 
against  reason.  The  mysteries  of  nature  and  provi- 
dence are  dawnings  of  light  into  darkness.  Eevela- 
tion,  too,  must  be  the  unveiling  of  mystery,  the 
revealing  of  old  secrets,  not  the  maimfacture  of  new 
ones.  Eevelation,  so  far  as  it  is  revelation,  is  the 
doing  away  of  mystery.  A  revealed  truth  can  never 
be  the  same  as  a  concealed  mystery.  The  part  which 
is  not  yet  revealed  is  the  mysterioiis  part,  and  to  that 


26  COMMON-SENSE  IN   EELIGION. 

part  faith  does  not  apply.  We  have  faith  in  the 
revelation,  not  in  the  mystery.  It  is,  therefore,  per- 
fectly true,  that  where  mystery  begins  revelation  and 
faith  in  revelation  must  end.  There  is  mystery  in 
religion,  as  there  is  mystery  everywhere  else.  But 
God  never  says  to  man,  "  This  is  a  mystery ;  you 
must  accept  it  blindly,  however  absurd  and  false  it 
may  seem." 

No.  But  he  says,  "  My  child,  I  do  not  shut  you 
into  a  world  where  everything  is  perfectly  intelligible, 
where  all  is  on  a  level  with  your  intellect.  Kather,  I 
let  you  have  glimpses  of  the  great  beyond.  I  open 
to  you  the  portals  of  far-reaching  wonders.  I  admit 
you  to  see  the  beginnings  of  majestic  laws,  which 
you  can  partially  know,  but  can  never  fully  compre- 
hend here,  whose  solution  lies  further  on.  I  send 
these  visions  of  superhuman  truth,  of  supernal 
beauty,  that,  even  in  this  world,  you  may  walk  over- 
shadowed by  a  higher  and  diviner  world,  and  so  learn 
that  you  belong  to  both.  These  mysteries  come,  not 
to  enslave  your  reason,  but  to  enlarge  and  emanci- 
pate it." 

So,  even  in  this  world,  our  coming  immortality 
"  broods  over  us,  like  the  day,"  and  makes  our  "  noisy 
years  seem  moments  in  the  being  of  the  eternal 
silence."    We  see  that  we  belong  to  two  worlds,  — 


COMMON-SENSE  AND   MYSTERY.  27 

that  of  time  which  we  can  understand,  and  that  of 
eternity  which  we  know,  though  we  can  never  com- 
prehend it. 

The  mysteries  of  theology  are  usually  very  poor 
things,  very  mean  and  small  matters.-  But  God's 
mysteries  are  grand  and  noble.  They  lift  the  soul  to 
conceptions  of  something  higher  than  this  world  can 
give.  They  open  the  golden  gates  of  the  great  here- 
after ;  they  give  us  glimpses  of  the  streets  of  the 
Eternal  City  of  God,  the  New  Jerusalem,  wherein  all 
the  beauty  and  love  of  this  life  shall  be  transfigured 
into  something  higher. 

**  Upon  the  frontier  of  this  shadowy  land 

"We,  pilgrims  of  eternal  sorrow,  stand  : 
What  realm  lies  forward,  with  its  happier  store 

Of  forests  green  and  deep, 

Of  valleys  hushed  in  sleep. 
And  lakes  most  peaceful  ?    'T  is  the  Land  of  Evermore  ! " 


II. 

COMMON-SENSE  VIEW  OF  HUMAN  NATURE. 


II. 


COMMON-SENSE    VIEW     OF    HUMAN 
NATURE. 

Spiritualism  and  Materialism  are  the  two  poles  of 
human  thought ;  and  sometimes  we  begin  at  one  pole, 
sometimes  at  the  other.  Spirit  and  matter  may 
perhaps  be  considered  as  the  two  manifestations  of 
some  one  substance,  the  basis  of  both.  But,  at  all 
events,  it  is  as  foolish  to  deny  soul  in  the  interest  of 
matter,  as  to  deny  matter  in  the  interest  of  soul.  The 
tendency  of  thought,  at  present,  is  to  try  to  infer 
soul  from  body ;  to  deduce  knowledge,  love,  and  faith 
from  transformed  bodily  sensations.  This  tendency 
results  in  a  defective  psychology,  and  leads  those  who 
are  possessed  by  it  to  confound  distinctions,  and  thus 
ends  in  mental  confusion.  That  there  may  be  a 
substance  underlying  both  body  and  soul  is  not  un- 
likely. But  to  try  to  infer  thought  from  sensation 
leads  to  a  waste  of  time,  paper,  and  printer's-ink, 
with  only  small  results. 

What  do  we  know  of  matter  ?     Only  this,  that  it  is 
that  something  which  is  perceived  through  the  senses. 


32  COMMON-SENSE   IN   EELIGION. 

What  do  we  know  of  mind  ?  Only  tliis,  that  it  is 
that  something  which  is  not  perceived  through  the 
senses,  but  through  consciousness.  Whatever  else 
we  may  know,  or  not  know,  concerning  mind  and 
matter,  we  know  at  least  this,  that  they  are  different 
in  this  respect.  What  we  perceive  through  the  senses 
is  matter ;  what  we  perceive  by  means  of  conscious- 
ness is  mind. 

The  tendency  to  identify  mind  with  matter  is  likely 
to  be  temporary,  and  does  not  belong  to  true  science. 
Science  observes  all  facts,  mental  no  less  than  physi- 
cal. And  as  thought,  love,  faith  are  facts  just  as 
real  and  certain  as  color,  weight,  and  form,  science 
cannot  afford  to  ignore  either,  or  to  merge  one  in 
the  other. 

Of  these  two  orders  of  phenomena,  certainly  the 
thought-side  of  man  is  the  most  important.  This  is 
what  chiefly  distinguishes  man  from  other  animals ; 
this  constitutes  the  humanity  in  him.  Through  the 
body  he  stands  related  to  other  animals ;  but  by  cer- 
tain phenomena  of  mind  he  stands  apart  from  them, 
and  walks  alone.  Whether  he  has  ascended  from  a 
mollusk,  or  not,  is  of  less  importance  than  to  see 
what  he  is  now.  And  this  is  what  we  propose  to 
inquire.  Let  us  begin  with  the  soul  in  man;  and 
then  we  may  go  on  to  consider  wherein  the  human 


COMMON-SENSE   VIEW   OF  HUMAN  NATURE.     33 

soul  differs  from  that  of  animals,  and  wherein  con- 
sists the  dignity  of  human  nature,  as  taught  by 
Christianity  and  by  common-sense. 

The  first  point  is  to  say  what  we  mean  by  the  soul. 
Let  us  define  it  thus.  The  soul  is  the  principle  of 
life,  vegetative,  animal,  mental,  and  moral.* 

This  definition  has  the  advantage  of  being  per- 
fectly intelligible,  simple,  and  incontrovertible.  Every 
one  knows  the  difference  between  a  living  and  an 
inanimate  being.  In  all  living  organizations  there 
must  be  some  principle  which  constitutes  life,  —  the 
basis  of  life.  This  is  not  located  in  the  physical  part 
which  we  call  the  body,  which  can  be  seen  and  analyzed 
by  the  senses ;  for  all  physical  organs  may  exist  the 
moment  after  death.  Something  has  gone;  but  no 
science  founded  on  sense  can  tell  what  is  gone.  So  no 
physical  science  can  tell  what  is  the  principle  of  life 
in  a  seed  which  may  continue,  without  change, 
three  thousand  years,  and  then  begin  to  grow.  Life, 
therefore,  is  something,  and  something  metaphysical ; 
that  is,  beyond  the  reach  of  physics.  This  principle 
of  life  we  call  the  soul. 

Remembering  our  definition  of  matter,  namely,  as 

*  In  this  definition  we  follow  the  Greek  and  Latin  meaning  of 
the  soul.  Psyche  in  the  Greek  means  soul  and  life  ;  anima  in  the 
Latin  means  soul  and  also  life. 

2*  c 


34  COMMON-SENSE  IN   RELIGION. 

something  which  is  perceived  through  the  senses,  we 
may  say  that  every  organized  hody  has  its  identity 
in  an  immaterial  principle,  and  not  in  a  material  one. 
You  have  the  same  body  now  that  you  had  ten  years 
ago,  but  not  a  single  particle  of  matter  in  it  now  was 
there  ten  years  since.  If  the  molecules  of  carbon, 
oxygen,  hydrogen,  and  phosphorus  in  your  body  con- 
stitute its  identity,  then,  when  they  are  removed  and 
replaced  by  others,  you  will  have  a  different  body. 
These  have  all  gone  in  seven  years  ;  but  you  have  the 
same  body  as  before,  the  same  form,  the  same  com- 
plexion, the  same  expression  of  eye,  the  same  tone 
of  voice,  the  same  habits,  physical,  intellectual,  and 
moral.  That  sameness,  then,  that  identity,  by  which 
the  friend  who  knew  you  ten  years  ago  recognizes 
you  as  the  same  person  to-day,  does  not  lie  in  the 
material,  but  the  immaterial  part  of  you.  The  ma- 
terial atoms  have  been  flowing  through  you  like  a 
river ;  but  you  have  remained  the  same  all  the  time. 
Does  not  this  show  that  Spenser  the  poet  was  right 
when  he  said,  — 

"  For  of  the  soul  the  body  form  doth  take  ; 
For  soul  is  form,  and  doth  the  body  make  "  ? 

The  unity  and  identity  of  every  organized  body 
must  have  their  root  in  something  beside  the  ma- 
terial particles  of  which  it  consists. 


COMMON-SENSE  VIEW   OF   HUMAN   NATURE.     35 

Again,  the  soul  is  a  unit.  The  evidence  of  this 
is,  that  it  gives  unity  to  the  body.  Every  living 
thing,  from  a  fungus  up  to  man,  is  made  a  unit  by 
this  invisible  principle  which  collects  and  arranges  in 
one  organic  whole  the  particles  of  oxygen,  hydrogen, 
and  carbon  fetched  from  the  earth  and  air.  All  that 
chemical  analysis  can  find  in  a  tree,  a  fish,  or  a  man 
is  carbon,  phosphorous,  oxygen,  etc.,  in  certain  propor- 
tions. But  what  combines  these  into  the  special  tree  ? 
what  correlates  them  into  the  special  forms  of  root, 
trunk,  bark,  leaves,  buds,  flowers,  fruit,  seed,  and  con- 
tinues to  reproduce  these  year  after  year,  century  after 
century  ?  There  is  something  there  which  gives  this 
unity,  —  a  persistent  unity ;  and  that  something  we 
call  its  soul.  But  it  is  of  little  consequence  what  we 
call  it.  Call  it  its  monad  or  its  molecule,  if  you 
will.  It  is  a  principle  of  unity,  and  so  is  imma- 
terial. 

There  are  two  ways  by  which  we  become  ac- 
quainted with  the  soul:  from  without,  by  observa- 
tion ;  from  within,  by  consciousness. 

By  observation  of  animated  beings  we  see  that  in 
addition  to  sensible  qualities,  as  solidity,  extension, 
form,  they  have  other  qualities,  as  growth  or  develop- 
ment, active  influence  on  external  things  to  modify 
them,  sensation,  desire,  thought,  will.     We  perceive 


36  COMMON-SENSE   IN   KELIGION. 

these  qualities  manifested  in  living  creatures,  and  we 
do  not  see  them  in  any  inanimate  things. 

By  consciousness,  we  find  in  ourselves  a  certain 
unit  or  principle  of  identity,  which  we  call  /,  a,s 
when  we  say  "  I  feel,"  "  I  think,"  "  I  wish,"  "  I  go,"  "  I 
went  to  such  a  place  a  year  ago,"  "  I  intend  to  study 
such  a  book  a  year  hence."  We  are  conscious  that 
this  ego  is  one  and  the  same  unit  amid  all  this  variety 
of  active  and  possible  life.  If  we  know  anything, 
we  know  this  thing  which  loves,  hates,  thinks, 
chooses ;  and  this  is  our  soul,  or  the  central  principle 
of  animal,  intellectual,  and  rpioral  life.  Of  animal 
life,  because  it  feels  bodily  pain  or  pleasure,  and  acts 
through  all  the  senses.  We  do  not  say  my  body 
sees  or  my  nose  smells ;  but  we  say  /  see,  /  taste ; 
just  as  we  say  /  think,  /  love.  The  soul  is  that 
in  which  all  the  functions  of  bodily  intellectual  and 
moral  life  inhere  and  find  their  unity. 

Again,  we  know  the  soul  to  be  finite  and  limited. 
We  are  conscious  of  limitation.  But  then  we  also 
know  the  soul,  within  these  limitations,  to  be  free ; 
that  is,  to  have  a  self-originated  movement,  and  a 
power  of  choice  between  opposites ;  to  be  a  cause'  as 
well  as  an  effect.  Of  the  limitations  of  this  free- 
dom we  shall  speak  hereafter.    . 

Again,  we  know,  as  we  have  intimated,  that  soul 


COMMON-SENSE  VIEW   OF   HUMAN  NATURE.     37 

is  immaterial.  All  that  we  know  of  matter  is  through 
its  phenomena ;  which  are  solidity,  extension,  form, 
color,  etc.,  none  of  which  belong  to  the  soul.  The 
qualities  of  matter  are  exactly  those  which  soul  does 
not  possess ;  the  qualities  of  soul  are  exactly  such  as 
matter  does  not  possess.  Matter  is  hard,  soft ;  white, 
black ;  long,  short ;  square,  round ;  heavy,  light ; 
fragrant,  inodorous.  The  soul  has  none  of  these 
qualities,  but  has  the  quality  of  feeling,  perceiving, 
tasting,  touching,  loving,  hating,  reasoning. 

If  any  one,  therefore,  asks,  "  How  do  we  know  that 
we  have  a  soul?"  the  answer  is,  "Exactly  as  we 
know  that  we  have  a  body."  How  do  I  know  that  I 
have  a  body  ?  Because  I  perceive  through  my  senses 
certain  bodily  phenomena,  as  resistance,  color,  form ; 
and  by  a  law  of  my  mind,  an  instinctive  and  in- 
voluntary act  of  reason,  infer  a  substance  in  which 
these  qualities  inhere,  and  call  it  hody.  So  I  per- 
ceive through  my  consciousness  certain  mental,  or 
rather  psychical  phenomena,  as  sensation,  percep- 
tion, thought,  love,  pleasure,  desire,  memory,  hope, 
determination ;  and  by  a  law  of  my  mind,  equally 
instinctive  and  involuntary,  infer  a  substance  in 
which  these  phenomena  inhere,  which  I  call  w,y  soul. 

Matter  is  essentially  passive,  soul  essentially  ac- 
tive.     Soul  imprisoned  in  matter  acts  as  far  as  this 


38  COMMON-SENSE  IN  RELIGION. 

allows  it  to  act.  The  soul  of  a  tree  can  only  make 
it  grow ;  it  cannot  move  to  and  fro.  The  soul  of  a 
star-fish  or  an  oyster  can  only  cause  it  to  move 
about  a  little ;  the  soul  of  a  dog  can  reason  a  little, 
and  love  a  good  deal ;  the  soul  of  a  man,  by  means 
perhaps  of  a  higher  bodily  development,  having 
more  lobes  to  the  brain,  can  also  see  abstract  truth, 
choose  absolute  right,  look  up  to  a  perfect  God,  an- 
ticipate an  infinite  future  and  an  eternal  progress. 
It  can  reflect  on  itself,  become  conscious  of  its  own 
character,  deliberately  choose  an  aim  in  life,  plan  out 
its  scheme  of  existence,  and  pursue  it  year  after  year. 
It  can  form  and  build  up  character,  and  so  improve 
indefinitely. 

Thus  the  soul  is  dependent  on  the  body,  not  only 
for  the  means  of  exercising  its  present  faculties,  but 
also  of  unfolding  new  ones.  If  the  soul's  body  is 
provided  with  few  and  poor  organs,  the  soul  is  much 
hampered.  When  the  body  is  weak,  sick,  injured, 
the  soul  becomes  helpless.  But  this  does  not  prove 
the  soul  to  be  the  result  of  body ;  it  only  proves  body 
to  be  the  necessary  condition  of  the  soul's  activity 
and  development.  An  organist,  without  his  organ, 
cannot  produce  any  music.  When  his  organ  is  out  of 
tune,  his  music  is  poor.  But  we  do  not  argue  from 
this  that  the  organist  is  the  result  of  the  organ.     We 


COMMON-SENSE  VIEW  OF  HUMAN  NATURE.     39 

do  not  say  that  Beethoven  is  the  final  product  of 
transformed  vibrations  of  metal  and  wood.  We 
happen  to  know  that  there  is  a  musician,  and  so 
we  accept  him  as  a  fact.  Otherwise  our  acute  sen- 
sational philosophers  would  no  doubt  be  able  to 
derive  him  from  habits  and  associations  of  bellows, 
keys,  and  pipes. 

Man,  then,  is  both  body  and  soul ;  but  these  agree 
in  this,  that  both  are  finite,  and  come  under  limita- 
tions of  space  and  time.  Man's  soul  is,  through  the 
body,  limited  to  one  place ;  and  to  one  moment  of 
duration.  But  there  is  in  him  something  unlimited, 
bound  to  neither  time  nor  place,  and  this  must  be 
the  power  of  the  Infinite  Being  within  him.  He 
must  be  able  to  commune  with  God;  in  no  other 
way  could  he  be  emancipated  from  time  and  space. 
In  the  great  moments  of  devotion,  of  self-sacrifice, 
of  love,  of  humility,  who  thinks  of  time  and  space  ? 
Then  arises  the  sense  of  immortality  within  us.  We 
feel  ourselves  immortal  only  as  we  commune  with 
infinite  and  eternal  ideas. 

Transcendentalism  is  right  in  allying  man  thus  in- 
timately and  naturally  with  God,  but  wrong  in  iden- 
tifying him  with  God.  Man  in  himself  is  not  infinite, 
but  finite ;  yet  he  has  a  part  of  his  soul  open  to  the 
infinite,  and  so  God  can  come  and  dweU  with  him, 
and  he  can  see  God. 


40  COMMON-SENSE  IN   RELIGION. 

This  trichotomy  or  threefold  division  of  the  nature 
of  man  into  spirit,  soul,  and  body,  was  well  known  to 
the  ancients.  Paul  and  Plato  both  held  to  it,  and  in 
modern  times  it  has  been  revived  by  various  thinkers. 
It  explains  many  facts  better  than  the  simpler  division. 
The  man  in  whom  spirit  is  supreme  is  the  religious 
man.  If  spirit  is  active,  but  soul  depressed,  then  he 
is  more  religious  than  moral.  If  soul  is  active  and 
spirit  depressed,  than  he  is  more  moral  than  religious. 
If  body  is  supreme,  then  he  is  carnal,  or  sensual. 
When  Paul  says  "The  natural  man  receiveth  not 
the  things  of  the  Spirit  of  God,"  he  refers  to  the 
soul-man,  the  psychical  man,  not  to  the  carnal 
man. 

The  Apostle  Paul,  in  his  first  letter  to  the  church 
in  Thessalonica,  says,  "  I  pray  God  that  your  whole 
spirit,  soul,  and  body  be  preserved  blameless  to  the 
coming  of  our  Lord  Jesus."  His  idea  is  that  we  can- 
not be  blameless,  or  pure,  without  becoming  wholly 
pure.* 

*  In  his  description  of  the  resurrection  (or  ascent)  of  the  body, 
the  apostle  distinguishes  the  present  body  from  the  future,  by  call- 
ing the  first  the  "soul-body"  and  the  other  the  "spirit-body." 
In  1  Cor.  XV.  44-46  we  should  read,  "It  is  sown  a  soul-body, 
it  is  raised  a  spirit-body.  There  is  a  soul-body,  and  there  is  a 
spirit-body The  soul-body  comes  first,  the  spirit-body  suc- 
ceeds to  it."     This   is  what  is  meant  by  the  resurrection  of  tho 


COMMON-SENSE  VIEW  OF  HUMAN   NATURE.    41 

The  apostle  is  not  satisfied  with  saving  a  part  of 
US,  he  does  not  mean  merely  to  save  our  souls ;  he 
wishes  to  save  the  whole  man ;  spirit,  soul,  and  body. 
He  believes  the  body  salvable  as  well  as  the  soul. 
He  anticipates  our  modern  educational  theories  about 
physical  training  and  physical  culture.  At  all  events, 
he  lays  down  the  principle  out  of  which  such  theories 
may  grow.  He  goes  further :  he  is  not  satisfied  with 
saving  soul  and  body,  but  wishes  to  save  the  spirit 
also.  According  to  his  notion  of  human  nature,  man 
is  not  only  a  body,  as  the  minerals  are ;  has  not  only 
a  body  and  soul,  as  the  plants  and  animals  have ;  but 
besides  this  has  a  spirit,  that  is,  divine  consciousness. 
Man  is  in  sympathy  with  all  outward  nature  through 
his  body ;  with  all  earthly  life  through  his  soul ;  and 
with  the  infinite  and  eternal  world  through  his  spirit. 
Thus  man  is  what  the  ancients  called  a  Microcosm, 
or  little  world,  corresponding  to  the  Macrocosm,  or 
universe.  The  universe  has  also  three  kingdoms : 
God,  who  is  the  active  Creator  from  whom  all  power, 
change,  progress,  evermore  proceeds  ;  nature,  the  pas- 
body.  It  is  a  higher  bodily  development,  by  which  the  human 
being  ascends  into  a  higher  outward  organization. 

The  word  ^vx'^  (Psyche)  occurs  in  the  New  Testament  about  one 
hundred  and  five  times.  It  is  translated  "soul"  fifty-eight  times, 
"life"  about  forty-three  times,  "mind"  three  times,  "heart"  and 
"heartily  "  twice. 


42  COMMON-SENSE  IN  RELIGION. 

sive  recipient,  which  is  moved  and  led  by  God ;  and 
the  intermediate  realm  of  souls,  which  partake  in  part 
of  God's  creative  force,  and  are  partly  acted  on  by 
external  influences.  JSTow  man  is  all  three :  he  is 
the  temple  of  God  by  his  spirit,  and  is  God's  child, 
receptive  of  God's  life  ;  he  is  a  living  soul,  indepen- 
dent, free,  and  with  a  special  individuality  and  per- 
sonality of  his  own ;  and  he  is  also  body,  immersed 
in  bodily  conditions,  rooted  in  earth,  planted  in  time 
and  space,  and  feeding  on  nature  through  his  senses. 

What,  then,  are  the  religious  elements  in  the  Soul 
qualifying  man  to  be  a  religious  being  ? 

According  to  our  definition  of  spirit,  the  strictly 
religious  part  of  man  is  the  Spirit ;  because  that  alone 
can  deal  with  the  Infinite.  But  we  yet  say  that  the 
Soul  has  certain  aspirations  toward  the  Infinite,  and 
certain  functions  by  which  it  feels  after  it ;  and  the 
phrenologists  may  be  right  in  giving  even  religious 
organs  to  the  body.  So  that  we  can  say,  when  a  man 
is  in  a  state  of  spiritual  activity,  looking  toward  God, 
he  is  communing  with  God,  and  has  risen  out  of  body 
and  out  of  soul  into  spirit,  and  his  will  disappears 
in  God's  will.  Then  he  acts  from  God,'  and  his  will 
acts  in  reverence,  worship,  love,  self-surrender.  He 
is  then  a  medium  through  which  God's  life  flows 
into  the  world.     When  it  is   said  that  Jesus  was 


COMMON-SENSE  VIEW  OF'HUMAN  NATURE.    43 

always  in  the  bosom  of  the  Father,  it  means  that  he 
was  always  in  this  state. 

Beside  the  spiritual  power  in  man,  by  which  he 
can  commune  with  the  Infinite  and  the  Eternal, 
there  are  other  religious  functions  of  his  nature,  of 
which  we  will  mention  the  following :  — 

Eeverence,  or  Veneration.  This  is  that' tendency 
of  the  soul  by  which  it  looks  up  to  something  higher 
than  itself.  It  is  the  faculty  of  aspiration.  Shake- 
speare says  of  it,  — 

"Reverence, 
That  angel  of  the  world,  that  makes  distinction 
Of  place  'twixt  high  and  low." 

This  faculty  leads  to  worship  and  adoration,  gives 
delight  in  acts  of  external  homage,  founds  churches, 
builds  cathedrals,  enjoys  solemn  rites  and  holy  cere- 
monies. When  unregulated  by  reason,  it  becomes 
superstition,  and  leads  to  bigotry,  intolerance,  and 
persecution.  But  in  its  due  exercise  it  is  "  the  crown 
of  the  whole  moral  nature,"  and  helps  man  to  rise 
above  himself  It  gives  harmony  to  his  being,  and  a 
certain  angelic  charm  to  life. 

Conscience.  This  is  that  faculty  or  function  of 
the  soul  by  which  it  perceives  right  as  right;  by 
which  it  has  the  conviction  of  justice,  obligation,  duty, 
absolute  law.     Conscience   does  not  teach  us  what 


44  COMMON-SiyNSE  IN  RELIGION. 

is  right,  only  that  something  is  right.  It  gives  the 
sense  of  merit  in  doing  what  we  believe  to  he  right, 
of  remorse  when  we  do  what  we  believe  to  be 
wrong.  It  is  not  a  code  of  ethics,  or  a  moral  law. 
We  must  find  out  what  is  right  by  reason,  and  by 
observing  what  is,  in  the  long  run,  good  and  useful. 
But  the  sense  of  right  itseK  is  not  the  same  as  the 
sense  of  the  useful.  Eegret  and  remorse  are  two 
wholly  different  conditions  of  mind.  When  we  have 
established  in  our  mind  a  principle  of  right,  it  is  dic- 
tatorial. It  is  the  categorical  imperative.  It  says, 
"Obey  me,  though  the  heavens  fall"  A  principle 
of  duty  is  one  thing,  a  calculation  of  expediency  a 
very  different  thing.  Conscience  is  a  religious  fac- 
ulty, because  of  this  very  absolute  and  commanding 
character  of  its  decisions.  It  is  the  voice  of  God 
within  us. 

Ereedom.  The  power  of  free  choice  is  another 
religious  faculty  in  man.  It  is  freedom  to  choose, 
not  necessarily  freedom  to  do.  Man  stands  between 
opposite  motives,  conflicting  arguments,  drawn  this 
way  and  that  way  by  external  influences  and  internal 
desires.  But  besides  these  motives  and  influences 
which  come  to  him  from  without,  he  has  the  power 
of  leaning  one  way  or  the  other  by  his  own  choice. 
Of  this  he  is  himself  conscious,  and  without  this 


COMMON-SENSE  VIEW   OF  HUMAN   NATURE.    45 

consciousness  of  freedom  there  could  be  no  sense  of 
responsibility.  It  is  easy,  no  doubt,  to  demonstrate 
logically  that  man  must  always  yield  to  the  strongest 
motive.  But  after  the  demonstration,  as  before,  we 
still  know  that  it  is  not  so.  We  cannot  reply  to  the 
argument,  but  we  are  never  convinced  by  it.  Man  is 
a  force,  limited  by  body,  by  the  conditions  of  time 
and  sense.  But  he  is  still  a  force,  essentially  active, 
a  creative  power  in  the  universe,  and  so  allied  to 
God,  the  Infinite  Creator. 

Eeason.  By  reason  we  mean  not  merely  the  power 
which  compares,  infers,  and  deduces  consequences 
from  causes,  but  we  mean  that  higher  act  of  human 
intelligence  by  which  the  soul  perceives  ideas,  or 
absolute  laws.  This  is  the  faculty  which  sees  ab- 
stract and  general  truth.  By  this  insight  man's 
freedom  becomes  really  freedom.  He  can  determine 
his  course  by  everlasting  ideas,  and  so  gradually 
emancipate  himself  from  the  dominion  of  circum- 
stances and  external  limitations. 

Such  are  some  of  the  religious  elements  in  the 
human  soul.  These  are  natural  to  man,  bom  in  all 
men.  Some  have  more  of  one  or  of  the  other  ten- 
dency, but  all  men  have,  in  a  greater  or  less  degree, 
all  of  these  powers.  By  means  of  these  man  is 
capable  of  rising  above  himself,  of  going  forward  in 


46  COMMON-SENSE  IN   RELIGION. 

an  everlasting  progress,  upward  and  onward.  Be- 
cause of  his  possession  of  these  powers  we  may  say 
of  him  that  he  is  "  little  lower  than  the  angels." 

There  are  two  schools  of  thought  which  take  a 
different  view  of  man.  The  old  Orthodox  theology, 
instead  of  putting  man  with  angels,  puts  him  with 
devils ;  and  modern  science,  instead  of  putting  him 
with  angels,  often  puts  him  with  apes.  The  one 
looks  at  man  only  on  his  sinful  side,  the  other  only 
on  his  animal  side. 

Now  it  is  true  that  man,  when  he  sins,  does  de- 
grade himself  below  the  cattle,  and  goes  down  among 
the  devils.  There  is  a  possibility,  in  every  man,  of 
fiendish  cruelty,  of  diabolic  treachery,  of  hard  selfish- 
ness, to  which  if  we  apply  the  word  "brutal"  we 
shall  do  injustice  to  the  brutes.  No  lion  or  tiger 
ever  tormented  its  victims  as  an  inquisitor  tortures 
a  conscientious  heretic,  or  as  a  slaveholder  tortures  a 
conscientious  slave.  No  swine  were  ever  so  steeped 
in  sensuality  as  some  men  are  w^ho  call  themselves 
men  of  pleasure.  No  fox  or  snake  ever  deceived  and 
lied  as  some  people  deceive  and  lie  in  the  business 
streets  of  Boston  or  New  York.  And,  no  doubt,  on  the 
bodily  side  of  him,  man  is  an  animal.  There  is,  no 
doubt,  a  plan  of  the  skeleton,  the  muscles,  the  nerves, 
which  we  share  with  lower  creatures.     We  need  not 


COMMON-SENSE  VIEW   OF  HUMAN  NATURE.   47 

be  ashamed  of  these  poor  relations  of  ours.  They 
are  also  souls,  imprisoned  in  lower  forms  of  body, 
which  perhaps  may  one  day  come  up,  and  be  devel- 
oped into  a  higher  type,  and  become  in  time  free  and 
responsible  beings  like  ourselves.  They  are  God's 
creatures  as  truly  as  we  aie;  and  so  they  are  our 
fellow-creatures. 

Still,  when  we  say  that  man  is  a  higher  kind  of 
devil,  or  a  higher  kind  of  ape,  we  do  not  tell  the 
truth  about  him.  He  belongs  to  an  essentially  dif- 
ferent world  and  type.  He  belongs  by  nature  to  the 
human  order,  not  the  monkey  order  or  the  diabolic 
order.  He  may  have  been  a  monkey,  and  he  can 
become  a  devil ;  but  as  a  man,  he  is  neither  one  nor 
the  other :  as  a  man,  he  is  "  made  a  little  lower  than 
the  angels,  and  crowned  with  glory  and  honor." 

God  has  made  a  great  gulf  between  man  and  the 
highest  animals,  and  another  between  man  and  the 
highest  devils.  The  gulf  between  man  and  the  most 
advanced  animals  is,  at  present,  impassable.  It  con- 
sists in  man's  gift  of  language,  his  power  of  progress, 
his  knowledge  of  abstract  and  universal  truths,  and 
his  faculty  of  free  choice.  In  aU  these  things  man  is 
far  above  the  animals. 

No  animal  has  verbal  language ;  all  men  have. 
Animals  and  men  both  express  their  feelings  by  cries ; 


48  COMMON-SENSE  IN   EELIGION. 

but  a  word  is  essentially  distinct  from  a  cry.  Articu- 
late speech  is  so  marvellous  a  thing,  that  the  tradi- 
tions of  all  nations  have  called  it  a  gift  of  the  gods. 
There  is  something  amazing,  almost  miraculous,  in 
two  persons  speaking  together,  —  the  thought  descend- 
ing out  of  the  mind  of  the  first  into  words,  and  going 
across  on  an  airy  bridge  of  sound  to  the  other,  then 
ascending  again  out  of  the  word  into  the  mind  of  the 
second !  If  an  animal  could  talk,  it  would  cease  to 
be  an  animal,  and  become  a  man.  But  though  the 
lowest  Hottentot  can  be  taught  any  language  of 
man,  the  highest  animal  cannot. 

So,  again,  man  has  the  power  of  progress,  animals 
have  not.  They  can  learn  tricks,  they  can  be  taught 
to  imitate,  but  they  do  not  advance.  Animals  and 
men  can  be  gradually  improved;  the  races  of  men 
and  animals  can  meliorate  or  degenerate.  But  man 
can  propose  to  himself  an  aim,  and  go  toward  it. 
Man  can  say,  "  I  will  learn  Latin,"  and  can  learn  it; 
"  I  will  become  a  merchant  or  a  lawyer,"  and  become 
one.  There  is  nothing  in  the  whole  animal  kingdom 
like  that.  Higher  still,  he  can  say,  "  I  will  become 
a  good  man,  I  will  become  a  Christian,"  and  can 
become  so. 

No  aniinal  has  ever  been  known  to  make  and  use 
tools.     A  baboon  will  find  a  stick,  and  use  it  as  a 


COMMON-SENSE  VIEW   OF  HUMAN  NATURE.    49 

club,  but  he  cannot  make  a  club.  Birds  build  their 
nests  with  wonderful  ingenuity,  but  they  do  it  with 
the  tools  given  them  by  God,  with  beak  and  claw. 
But  man,  beginning  with  the  stone  hatchets  and 
flint  arrow-heads  of  the  savage,  goes  on  till  he  reaches 
the  wonderful  machinery  by  which  he  can  cut  in  two 
an  iron  bar  with  his  shears  as  though  it  were  a  piece 
of  paper,  plane  an  iron  log  as  though  it  were  a  pine 
board,  lay  a  cable  under  the  ocean,  hang  a  bridge 
over  Niagara,  put  a  tunnel  two  miles  long  under  a 
lake.  This  is  another  gulf  fixed  between  animals 
and  man.  All  men  can  use  tools;  animals  cannot. 
It  is  certain  that  the  power  of  using  tools  is  a 
characteristic  of  mankind.  The  mere  presence  of 
rude  stone  hammers  or  hatchets  in  some  geological 
strata,  where  no  other  evidence  of  man's  existence 
can  be  found,  is  now  reckoned  by  geologists  and 
anthropologists  as  sufficient  proof  that  human  beings 
have  lived  in  that  period.  These  stone  implements, 
so  clumsy  as  to  be  with  difficulty  regarded  as  works 
of  art,  have  been  considered  enough  to  give  a  name 
to  the  "  Stone  Age."  In  1847  Boucher  des  Perthes 
published  his  book,  Antiquites  Celtiques,  in  which 
he  gives  an  account  of  some  stone  hatchets  and 
arrow-heads  found  in  the  diluvium,  from  which  he 
inferr^.d  the  existence  of  men  at  the  period  repre- 

3  D 


50  COMMON-SENSE  IN  RELIGION. 

sented  by  that  drift.  Opposed  at  first,  this  view  is 
now  generally  received  by  men  of  science.  It  was 
opposed  on  many  grounds,  and  for  a  long  time,  but 
no  man  of  science  opposed  it  on  the  ground  that 
these  tools,  though  of  the  rudest  character,  might 
have  been  the  work  of  animals. 

Again,  no  animal  has  the  knowledge  of  universal 
truths.  Man  not  only  knows  that  some  things  are 
good,  but  he  knows  there  is  such  a  thing  as  goodness ; 
he  not  only  knows  that  there  are  true  things,  but  he 
knows  there  is  such  a  thing  as  truth;  he  not  only 
knows  that  this  particular  event  has  a  cause,  but  that 
all  events  have  causes.  You  may  say,  "  How  do  we 
know  that  animals  have  not  these  ideas  ? "  I  answer, 
that  it  is  by  being  able  to  ascend  out  of  the  fact  into 
the  law  that  man  obtains  the  mastery  over  creation, 
and  if  animals  could  do  it,  they  could  not  have  been 
subdued  by  man.  It  is  by  seeing  a  law  as  well  as 
a  fact,  that  man  is  able  to  foresee,  and  so  can  ar- 
range beforehand.  This  power  gives  him  dominion 
over  nature,  and  over  animals  as  a  part  of  nature. 
God  has  put  aU  things  under  his  feet,  by  giving  him 
the  power  of  rising  out  of  the  single  fact  into  the 
universal  law.  The  result  of  all  is,  that  at  last  we 
reach  the  knowledge  of  the  most  universal  law,  the 
Infinite  Cause,  and  so  know  God. 


COMMON-SENSE   VIEW   OF   HUMAN   NATURE.     51 

All  men,  as  soon  as  they  begin  to  be  cultivated, 
have  general  ideas.  They  have  an  idea  of  beauty, 
apart  from  any  particular  beautiful  thing;  an  idea 
of  universal  cause,  apart  from  any  particular  cause. 
So,  too,  of  power,  law,  substance,  attribute,  right  and 
wrong,  good  and  evil,  time  and  space.  Man,  by  rea- 
son, is  capable  of  general  notions.  We  do  not  find 
in  animals  any  such  reason.  See,  now,  what  this 
power  of  generalization  does  for  man.  It  furnishes 
him  with  rules,  laws,  principles.  It  gives  him  the 
power  of  self-direction  toward  an  aim.  These  gen- 
eral ideas,  these  abstractions  of  reason,  preside  over 
all  of  human  life.  The  most  uneducated  man  will 
say,  "  I  have  a  notion  that  I  had  better  do  this,  that 
I  ought  to  do  that."  Then  he  rises  out  of  the  region 
of  facts  into  that  of  law.  Facts  change;  laws  en- 
dure. This  gives  persistency  of  aim  to  our  life ;  this 
is  the  key  of  progress  and  civilization. 

Man's  freedom  also  connects  him  with  angels  on 
one  side  and  demons  on  the  other.  We  may  believe 
in  a  rational  way  in  demons  as  well  as  angels,  be- 
cause we  must  believe  in  the  freedom  of  moral  beings. 
Whoever  is  free  to  choose  may  choose  evil  as  well  as 
good.  An  angel  is  one  who  has  chosen  good ;  a  devil, 
one  who  has  chosen  evil.  Animals  are  too  far  down 
to   be  able  to    choose    either;    they   can,  therefore. 


62  COMMON-SENSE   IN   RELIGION. 

neither  become  angels  nor  devils.     Angels  and  devils 
are  both  recruited  from  the  ranks  of  men. 

We  do  not  know  how  far  this  freedom  to  choose 
evil  may  go,  and  cannot  venture  to  conjecture.  We 
know  that  in  this  world  men  do  sometimes  blind 
their  minds  and  harden  their  hearts,  and  go  resolutely 
on  the  downward  way,  till  they  disappear  from  our 
eyes  in  death.  How  much  farther  they  can  go  in 
that  direction  we  do  not  know.  I  am  one  of  those 
who  believe  that  in  the  great  order  of  the  universe 
all  disorders  shall  at  last  be  swallowed  up,  and  every 
knee  bow  to  God  in  submission  and  love.  This 
seems  to  me  a  necessary  inference  from  monotheism. 
But  I  do  not  know  when.  I  cannot  say  how  many  at 
this  moment  may  be  pursuing  evil,  in  the  vast  spaces 
of  creation,  nor  how  far  they  may  go  in  that  direction. 
It  is  probable  that  the  Pharisees  in  the  time  of  Jesus, 
who  sinned  against  the  Holy  Ghost  by  closing  their 
ears  and  eyes  against  his  goodness  and  truth,  were  in 
this  diabolic  state.  And  just  so  are  all  those  now  who 
do  the  same.  But  as  long  as  the  love  of  truth  exists  in 
the  soul,  as  long  as  one  does  not  deny  that  right  is 
right,  and  that  goodness  is  goodness  ;  so  long,  though 
there  may  be  much  evil  and  sin  in  the  character,  there 
is  nothing  of  the  devil  in  it.  The  face  is  turned  toward 
good,  and  not  toward  evil;  and  though  tound  per- 


COMMON-SENSE   VIEW   OF   HUMAN  NATURE.    53 

haps  by  sin,  we  do  not  yield  ourselves  to  sin  willingly, 
and  so  are  not  servants  of  sin,  but  servants  of  God. 

Thus  we  see  that  there  is  at  present  a  very  distinct 
line  of  separation  between  the  soul  of  man  and  the 
soul  of  the  highest  animals.  The  animal  has  affec- 
tion, intelligence,  and  will,  and  so  has,  in  common 
with  man,  the  three  chief  elements  of  soul.  But 
while  all  men  have  verbal  language,  use  tools,  and 
possess  the  power  of  progress  toward  an  aim,  animals 
are  wanting  in  all  these  characters.  Two  great  think- 
ers, differing  from  each  other  on  many  points,  —  Locke 
and  Leibnitz,  —  have  agreed  in  finding  the  root  of  all 
these  differences  in  man's  capacity  for  general  ideas. 
Man  is  superior  to  the  dog  and  beaver,  because  he  can 
not  only  become  aware  of  good  actions  and  good 
men,  but  of  goodness ;  not  only  of  right  and  wrong 
deeds,  but  of  justice ;  not  only  of  cause  and  being, 
but  of  an  absolute  First  Cause,  of  an  infinite  and 
perfect  Being.  His  power  of  progress  comes  greatly 
from  this.  He  is  capable  of  looking  in  and  looking 
up ;  of  seeing  things  which  are  invisible,  of  eman- 
cipating himself  from  space  and  time,  of  laying 
hold  of  an  idea.  It  is  this  which  gives  real  dignity 
to  human  nature.  It  is  this  power  of  connecting 
himself  spiritually  with  something  infinite  and  per- 
fect which  lifts  man  above  the    beasts,  and  makes 


54  COMMON-SENSE   IN   RELIGION. 

him  capable,  not  merely  of  a  continued  future  exist- 
ence, but  of  a  present  immortal  life. 

That  every  one  of  us  may  have  been  at  one  time  an 
oyster  or  a  monkey  I  do  not  deny.  I  know  nothing 
about  it,  so  I  cannot  deny  it.  But  that  we  are  not 
oysters  and  monkeys  now,  but  men,  and  that  man  is 
separated  by  an  immense  distinction  from  all  other 
animal  races,  —  this  is  something  which  I  think  we 
do  know.  And  this  I  think  Jesus  believed,  too.  He 
spake  not  only  of  himself,  but  of  humanity,  when  he 
declared,  "  One  stands  here  greater  than  the  Temple." 

JSTo  doubt  this  seemed  to  the  Jews  an  audacious 
thing  to  say.  Man  makes  institutions,  and  then 
bows  before  the  work  of  his  hands.  He  considers 
the  institution  greater  than  himself  So  he  becomes 
an  idolater.  He  worships  nature,  sun,  moon,  and 
stars.  Ke  worships  heroes,  Theseus,  Hercules,  Thor, 
Odin.  He  worships  churches,  books,  days,  ceremo- 
nies. He  thinks  them  all  greater  than  himself, 
though  he  is  infinite,  they  only  finite. 

Jesus  reversed  all  this.  He  reverenced  humanity. 
The  priests  thought  the  Sabbath  greater  than  man, 
and  would  not  have  the  Sabbath  broken  to  have  a 
man  healed.  But  Jesus  said  that  the  Sabbath  was 
made  for  man,  and  therefore  healed  on  the  Sabbath 
day. 


COMMON-SENSE  VIEW  OF   HUMAN  NATURE.     55 

Little  children  have  always  been  too  much  neg- 
lected or  despised,  and  only  the  unconquerable 
instinct  of  the  father  and  mother  has  protected 
them  at  all.  Down  to  the  time  of  Christ  they  were 
shielded  by  this  instinct,  rather  than  by  any  convic- 
tion. Then  and  since,  and  even  now,  they  have  been 
guided,  mainly,  as  we  guide  a  drove  of  cattle.  They 
have  been  driven,  not  led ;  kept  in  order  by  scolding  ; 
suffered  to  die  for  want  of  food  and  care ;  suffered  to 
grow  up  into  all  wickedness  for  want  of  instruction. 
Jesus  came  and  took  them  in  his  arms,  and  blessed 
them.  He  saw  in  the  child  the  guarantee  of  human 
improvement.  He  saw  in  its  innocent,  unperverted 
nature  the  only  probable  capacity  for  his  religion. 
These  were  to  be  the  citizens  of  his  commonwealth ; 
"  of  such,"  said  he,  "  are  the  kingdom  of  heaven." 

And  so,  since  that  day,  the  value  of  a  child's  soul 
has  begun  to  be  recognized,  and  the  fact  seen,  that 
all  human  progress  depends  on  the  care  paid  to  the 
rising  generation.  So  schools  and  homes  improve. 
When  I  was  a  boy,  and  went  to  the  Boston  Latin 
School,  it  was  the  custom  to  inflict  perhaps  half  a 
dozen  whippings  a  day,  in  each  room.  A  boy  who 
talked  was  whipped.  A  boy  who  did  not  say  his 
lesson  was  whipped.  A  boy  who  came  late  was 
whipped.     Now,  in  that,  and  all  our  schools,  things 


56  COMMON-SENSE  IN  KELIGION. 

go  miicli  better ;  and  in  some  places  they  have  even 
reached  the  point  in  which  the  beating  of  girls  is 
wholly  abolished.  Perhaps  in  some  distant  future 
we  may  leave  off  beating  boys  also. 

The  worst  thing  about  the  system  of  slavery  was, 
not  that  men  and  women  were  beat,  and  bought  and 
sold,  but  the  evil  was  that  they  were  considered  as 
means,  not  ends;  things,  not  souls.  They  were  re- 
garded as  tools  for  raising  cotton  and  sugar;  rice- 
raising  machines,  hemp-raising  machines.  If,  stand- 
ing by  a  cotton-field,  you  had  said  to  the  planter, 
"This  negro  wlio  stands  here  is  greater  than  the 
cotton,"  he  would  have  been  as  much  surprised  as  the 
Jews  were  when  Jesus  said  that  he,  the  Son  of  Ma,n, 
"  was  greater  than  the  Temple."  And  the  best  thing 
about  the  abolition  of  slavery  is,  that  now  the  negro 
begins  to  be  regarded  as  here  for  his  own  sake,  not 
for  ours.  Now  he  has  an  intellect  to  be  instructed, 
and  we  send  him  teachers ;  now  he  has  a  soul  to 
be  saved,  and  we  send  him  missionaries  and  the 
Bible. 

We  are  still  too  much  in  the  habit  of  looking  on 
men  as  masses,  not  as  individuals.  We  talk  of  the 
working  classes,  the  lower  classes.  The  result  of  this 
way  of  looking  at  them  is  to  be  seen  in  New  York 
and  other  places.    The  people  who  have  knowledge. 


COMMON-SENSE  VIEW   OF   HUMAN  NATURE.     57 

wealth,  culture,  have  devoted  themselves  to  their  own 
affairs,  and  neglected  the  good  of  the  whole  com- 
munity ;  and  now,  because  they  neglected  the  lower 
classes,  they  are  governed  by  the  lower  classes. 

Jesiis  has  also  taught  us  to  see  in  the  criminal  a 
man,  having  in  him,  after  all,  something  greater  than 
the  social  laws  he  has  broken.  The  old  way  of  treat- 
ing criminals  was  to  punish  them,  and  if  that  did  not 
do,  punish  them  more  severely.  But  it  was  seen,  at 
last,  that  punishment  and  crime  went  hand  in  hand, 
increasing  in  the  same  ratio.  In  my  childhood  a 
hanging  was  a  great  festival ;  as  much  so  as  Thanks- 
giving Day  or  the  Fourth  of  July.  Men  and  women 
with  their  little  children  came  from  far  and  near  to 
see  a  man  choked  to  death.  This  was  brutalizing ;  and 
so  the  result  was  not  the  diminution  of  crime,  but 
its  increase.  But  as  soon  as  we  begin  to  treat  the 
criminal  as  a  man,  and  his  crime  as  a  disease  caught 
in  the  contagious  atmosphere  of  city  debauchery; 
so  soon  as  we  consider  crime  the  dark,  consummate 
fruit  of  which  vice  is  the  blossom  and  ignorance  the 
stalk ;  so  soon  as  we  turn  our  prisons  into  reforma- 
tories and  hospitals  to  cure  the  criminal, — just  so 
soon  does  crime  diminish.  Every  reformed  drunkard 
is  the  best  preacher  of  temperance,  every  reformed 
criminal  the  best  teacher  of  morality.     The  old  pris- 

3* 


58  COMMON-SENSE  IN   RELIGION. 

ons  had  only  one  method  of  treating  criminals,  and 
that  was  to  punish  them.  Modern  prisons  reward 
them  for  their  efforts  to  do  right,  and  stimulate  them 
to  do  better  by  gradually  removing  restraints  and 
lightening  labor,  till  at  last  the  reformed  criminal 
goes  out  with  a  good  character  which  he  has  formed 
in  jail,  and  which  is  a  passport  to  work  and  op- 
portunity. 

If  you  strike  an  artesian  well  down  through 
human  society,  you  pass  through  many  strata.  First, 
there  is  the  stratum  of  respectability,  of  refinement 
and  culture.  Then  comes  the  stratum  of  comfort, 
morality,  and  decorum ;  then  that  of  mere  work,  in- 
telligent but  incessant  toil ;  then  the  stratum  of 
ignorance  and  indolence ;  then  of  poverty ;  then  of 
vice ;  then  of  crime.  But  go  down  deeper  still,  and 
you  come  to  the  stratum  of  primitive  rock,  which  lies 
below  the  valley,  and  crops  up  at  the  summit  of  the 
mountain,  the  eternal  humanity  which  is  in  all  men. 

That  primeval  nature  supports  everything,  over- 
looks everything.  That  contains  the  seeds  of  good 
and  evil :  the  undying  sense  of  right  out  of  which  all 
good  is  unfolded;  the  selfishness  out  of  which -all  vice 
and  crime  come.  That  is  in  us  all.  We  are  mem- 
bers of  a  great  body.  "We  belong  to  the  same  family. 
When  we  see  this,  we  are  able  to  sympathize  with 


COMMON-SENSE  VIEW   OF  HUMAN  NATURE.     59 

all  men,  even  the  lowest  and  worst ;  •  for  they  all  have 
one  common  nature.  Man  is  the  greatest  thing  we 
see  or  hear.  The  snn  shall  fade,  the  stars  grow 
dim,  the  heaven  and  the  earth  pass  away  as  a  scroll 
that  is  rolled  together;  but  the  soul  of  man,  with 
its  good  and  evil,  its  vast  aspirations,  its  undying 
capacities,  its  power  to  act  and  to  suffer,  its  ability 
to  do  heroic  deeds  and  to  love  God  and  man,  —  this 
shall  endure  in  all  time. 


III. 

ON  THE  DOCTRINE  CONCERNING  GOD. 


GOD. 

Some  idea  of  God  lies  at  the  root  of  all  religion ; 
the  true  idea  of  God  lies  at  the  root  of  true  reHgion. 
Until  some  idea  of  God  enters  the  mind,  religion  is 
impossible.  It  is  a  confusion  of  terms  to  define  re- 
ligion as  a  longing  after  the  Infinite,  or  as  an  attempt 
at  self-development,  or  as  the  sense  of  obligation,  or 
the  like.  Worship,  in  its  lower  forms,  may  exist 
without  any  notion  of  God.  Shakespeare  has  typi- 
fied this  in  Caliban's  worship  of  the  drunken  sailor. 
Virtue  may  exist  without  the  idea  of  God;  for  the 
basis  of  virtue  is  the  sense  of  duty,  the  idea  of  right 
and  wrong.  But  religion  is  the  sense  of  our  relation 
to  supernatural  personal  beings,  or  to  a  supernatural 
being.  As  supernatural,  he  is  above  outward  nature, 
having  a  control  over  it ;  and  as  a  person,  we  can 
come  into  personal  relations  with  him.  This  being 
is  God. 

How  do  we  define  God  ?  Have  we  any  means  by 
which  to  define  the  true  God?  Suppose  we  were 
living  five  hundred  years  before  Christ.     Every  race. 


64  COMMON-SENSE  IN  RELIGION. 

every  nation,  has  its  own  god.  Which  is  the  true 
God,  the  Supreme  Being  ?  The  Greeks  say  Zeus ;  he 
is  the  father  of  gods  and  men.  The  Persians  say 
Ormazd ;  he  is  the  supreme  light,  king  of  day  and 
of  truth.  The  Egyptians  say  Amun,  infinite  spirit. 
The  Jews  say  Jahveh;  he  made  the  heavens;  the 
gods  of  the  nations  are  idols. 

How  should  we  be  able  to  decide  between  these 
national  deities,  and  find  the  true  God  ? 

First,  we  should  set  aside  the  name,  and  say,  "  The 
name  is  nothing ;  it  is  the  true  character  which  makes 
the  true  God.  That  which  is  most  divine  is  God." 
And  we  have  in  ourselves  the  idea  of  perfection, 
which  is  the  test  of  divinity.  The  true  God  is  the 
most  perfect  being,  the  being  who  unites  all  perfec- 
tions, the  being  in  whom  all  the  highest  attributes 
centre.     The  definition  of  God  is  The  perfect  Being. 

There  are  many  imperfect  beings,  as  imperfection 
is  finite.  There  can  be  but  one  perfect  being,  for 
perfection  is  infinite.  If,  then,  there  is  a  perfect  God, 
he  is  one ;  and  if  God  be  one,  he  is  perfect. 

Therefore  God  is  the  being  in  whom  all  perfections 
centre.  He  is  the  fulness  which  fills  all  in  all. 
The  more  we  add  of  what  is  real  and  good  to  our  idea 
of  God,  the  nearer  we  come  to  the  true  God.  This  is 
why  the  Christian  conception  of  God  has  expelled  all 


GOD.  65 

others,  and  is  accepted  by  the  best  thought  of  the 
world.     It  is  because  it  is  the  highest  conception. 

To  use  the  right  name  for  God  does  not  make  true 
belief  Here  are  two  men :  one  a  professed  Christian, 
the  other  a  professed  Pagan.  The  professed  Christian 
is  St.  Dominic,  the  founder  of  the  Inquisition ;  the 
professed  Pagan  is  the  Eoman  Emperor,  Marcus  Au- 
relius  Antoninus.  The  professed  Christian  has  for  his 
God  a  being  whom  he  believes  jealous  and  arbitrary. 
He  believes  that  his  God  is  pleased  in  seeing  men  and 
women  tortured  and  burned  alive,  because  they  are 
heretics  to  the  right  creed.  The  Pagan  worships  a 
being  wise,  mighty,  and  good,  maker  and  supporter 
of  all  things,  who  loves  virtue  in  all  men,  and  re- 
wards it  everywhere.  ;N"ow  the  Christian,  worship- 
ping in  name  the  true  God,  worships  in  reality  the 
false  one ;  and  the  Pagan,  worshipping  in  name  Jupi- 
ter, worships  in  reality  the  God  and  Father  of  Jesus 
Christ. 

Which  of  these  two  breaks  the  first  commandment  ? 
Is  it  he  who  gives  the  right  name  to  God,  but  wor- 
ships under  that  name  tyranny  and  cruelty,  or  he 
who,  under  the  wrong  name,  worships  wisdom  and 
goodness  ?  Yet  most  men  judge  so  by  the  name,  by 
the  outward  appearance,  that  they  would  consider  the 
man  who  says  in  his  prayer,  "0  Lord !"  to  be  wor- 


66  COMMON-SENSE  IN  RELIGION. 

shipping  the  true  God ;  while  the  man  who  says  '*'  0 
Zeus  !  0  Jupiter ! "  must  necessarily  be  worshipping 
the  false  god. 

It  is  not  using  the  right  name,  but  accepting  the 
right  being,  the  right  character,  which  constitutes  the 
belief  of  the  true  God. 

It  may  also  happen  that  two  men  shall  profess  the 
same  religion,  hold  the  same  Bible,  and  call  God  by 
the  game  name,  but  one  of  them  shall  be  a  believer 
in  the  true  God,  and  one  not ;  one  shall  keep  the  first 
commandment,  and  the  other  break  it.  For  one  may 
pray  in  this  way,  "  0  Lord !  I  pray  thee  to  save  my 
soul.  I  know  thou  art  a  hard  man,  reaping  where 
thou  hast  not  sown,  and  gathering  where  thou  hast 
not  strewed ;  and  so,  though  thou  hast  made  me  so 
that  I  am  born  totally  depraved,  and  unable  to  do 
any  good  thing,  thou  dost  require  of  me  to  obey  and 
love  thee.  I  am  made  wholly  selfish  and  an  enemy 
to  thee,  and  am  unable  to  love  anything  truly ;  but  I 
admit  I  ought  to  love  thee  notwithstanding.  I  do 
not  see  how  I  am  guilty  in  doing  wrong,  when  I  can- 
not do  right ;  but  I  am  told  that  I  ought  to  confess 
myself  a  sinner,  and  so  I  do ;  I  confess  myself  to  be 
the  vilest  of  sinners.  Thou  hast  said  that  the  right- 
eousness of  the  righteous  shall  be  upon  him,  and  the 
wickedness  of  the  wicked  shall  be  on  him  ;  and  yet  I 


GOD.  67 

hope  to  be  saved,  not  by  my  merits,  or  by  becoming 
good  myself,  but  by  the  merits  and  goodness  of  Jesus 
Christ.  Amen."  !N"ow  that  is  one  prayer.  Here  is 
another,  uttered  perhaps  by  a  poor  ignorant  slave, 
who  has  never  been  allowed  to  read  the  Bible,  and 
whose  theological  notions  are  therefore  very  simple 
and  childlike. 

"  0  Lord !  I  do  not  know  thee  very  well,  but  I  be- 
lieve that  thou  art  a  good  master,  and  I  want  to  be 
a  good  servant.  0  master,  show  me  how  to  do  right. 
Help  me,  0  Lord,  to-day,  not  to  be  angry  nor  idle, 
not  to  tell  any  lies,  but  to  be  faithful  in  everything. 
If  I  am  beaten  or  ill  used  unjustly,  help  me  to  bear 
it,  as  the  good  Master  Jesus  bore  it  patiently  when 
they  beat  him.     Amen." 

Now  these  two  both  say  "  0  Lord  ! "  but  they  are 
evidently  not  worshipping  the  same  being. 

In  fact,  so  far  is  the  name  which  we  worship  from 
being  essential,  that  the  most  religious  nations  have 
hesitated  to  give  any  name  to  God.  In  fact,  we  do 
not  know  now  how  to  pronounce  the  name  of  the  God 
of  the  Jews.  The  true  pronunciation  of  the  word 
"  Jahveh,"  or  "  Jehovah,"  has  been  wholly  lost ;  for  the 
Jews  carefully  avoided  every  mention  of  it,  and  sub- 
stituted for  it  any  other  word  written  with  the  same 
vowels.     They  were  so  afraid  of  taking  the  name  of 


68  COMMON-SENSE  IN  RELIGION. 

the  Lord  in  vain,  that  they  did  not  venture  to  utter 
it  at  all.  The  Eabbins  call  it  "the  Name/'  "the 
Kame  of  four  letters,"  "the  separate  Name."  The 
knowledge  of  the  name  was  a  great  secret,  possessed 
by  few ;  and  the  last  man  who  knew  it  is  said  to 
have  been  Simon  the  Just.  God  revealed  him- 
self to  Moses  as  "  The  I  arm"  as  Essential  Being.  He 
revealed  himself  to  the  Jews  by  his  law,  and  they 
knew  him  when  they  knew  that ;  in  the  mingled 
justice  and  mercy  of  the  law,  in  its  demand  for 
purity.  Jesus  says,  "They  who  worship  God  must 
worship  him  in  spirit  and  in  truth."  It  is  not  the 
name  we  give  to  God,  but  the  idea  we  have  of  him, 
which  determines  whether  or  not  we  worship  him  in 
truth.  It  is  not  the  outward  form  of  worship  which 
we  practice,  but  the  inward  devotion,  the  reality  of 
love,  which  determines  whether  or  not  we  worship 
him  in  spirit. 

Many  worship  God,  but  worship  something  else 
more.  Then  they  have  some  other  god  before  the 
true  God. 

Thus,  many  persons  go  to  church,  and  say  their 
prayers,  and  call  God  "  Our  Father  in  heaven,"  but 
their  real  god  is  not  a  Father.  Their  real  god  is  an 
almighty  power.  He  is  an  inflexible  will.  He  is 
one  who  acts,  not  according  to  wisdom  and  love,  as  a 


GOD.  69 

good  father  acts,  but  according  to  some  personal  whim 
of  his  own.  He  has  his  favorites,  whom  he  elects 
and  chooses  to  make  happy  forever.  He  has  those 
whom  he  dislikes  for  no  reason  except  that  he  has 
taken  a  prejudice  against  them,  and  so  rejects  them 
and  sends  them  to  perdition.  This  is  the  essential 
idea  of  Calvinism  according  to  Calvin ;  and  Calvin- 
ism has  another  god  before  the  God  of  Jesus  Christ. 
Jesus  worshipped  a  Father;  Calvinism  worships  an 
infinite,  arbitrary  will. 

Mr.  Froude,  who  is  one  of  the  chief  sceptics  in 
England,  and  does  not  believe  at  all  in  Christianity, 
has  recently  expressed  a  great  faith  in  Calvinism. 
So  extremes  meet.  He,  however,  rehabilitates  Cal- 
vinism by  making  it  something  else  than  it  really 
is.  He  makes  it  mean  faith  in  law,  whereas  it  means 
faith  in  an  almighty,  arbitrary  will.  But  arbitrary 
will  is  despotism,  not  government.  It  produces  not 
a  generous,  intelligent  obedience,  but  only  a  slavish 
submission.  The  worship  of  such  a  being  is  not  per- 
fect freedom,  but  cowardly  subservience.  Calvinism 
puts  another  god  before  God. 

Some  people  go  to  the  other  extreme,  and  put  law 
above  God.  The  personal  God,  the  Friend,  the 
Father,  disappears  behind  a  misty  veil  of  law.  It 
is   undeniably  true   that   God  works   by   law.     He 


70  COMMON-SENSE  IN  EELIGION. 

maintains  a  great  order  in  the  universe,  and  we 
sleep  and  rise  trusting  to  this  order,  and  sure  that 
no  caprice  of  will  in  the  Almighty  will  ever  change 
it.  But,  beside  Law,  God  is  also  Providence.  He  is 
an  infinite  person;  infinite  in  power,  wisdom,  and 
love.  He  is  guiding  events  onward  and  forward.  The 
universe  is  not  a  dead  machine,  clattering  on  with- 
out object  or  purpose.  Everywhere  God's  face  looks 
upon  us  out  of  creation,  and  his  voice  speaks  to  our 
heart,  telling  us  to  fight  the  good  fight  of  faith,  and 
lay  hold  on  eternal  life,  and  not  to  doubt  that  all 
things  shall  work  together  at  last  for  good  to  those 
who  love  him.  God,  as  a  person,  is  Infinite  Freedom. 
But  this  infinite  freedom  is  not  wilfulness,  for  it  is 
associated  with  infinite  wisdom  in  a  perfect  order, 
toward  infinite  good,  in  perfect  love. 

Others,  again,  put  the  Devil  above  God.  They  do 
not  consciously  worship  the  Devil,  but  they  make 
God  so  much  like  the  Devil,  that  it  comes  to  the  same 
thing.  Those  who  believe  that  God  has  made  more 
evil  than  good  in  the  world;  who  believe  that  human 
beings  are  made  radically  bad  and  not  good ;  who 
think  all  are  by  nature  evil,  and  only  a  few,  who  are 
converted  and  belong  to  the  true  church,  are  really 
good, —  these  make  evil  and  not  good  supreme  in  the 
world.      Total  and  natural  depravity  here,  and  an 


GOD.  71 

eternal  hell  hereafter,  enthrone  the  Devil  as  the  su- 
preme ruler  of  a  large  part  of  the  universe,  and  only 
allow  God  to  be  sovereign  over  a  few  sound  believers 
here  and  there.  All  such  doctrines,  therefore,  as  far 
as  they  are  really  believed,  put  another  god  above 
the  true  God. 

To  believe  in  God  is  to  believe  in  truth,  justice, 
purity,  generosity,  above  everything  else.  John  says, 
"  He  that  dwelleth  in  love  dwelleth  in  God ;  for  God 
is  love."  He  does  not  say,  "  He  who  dwelleth  in  an 
Orthodox  creed  dwelleth  in  God ;  for  God  is  a  creed." 
He  does  not  say,  "  He  who  dwelleth  in  sacraments, 
rituals,  ceremonies,  dwelleth  in  God;  for  God  is  a 
ceremony."  He  does  not  say,  "  He  who  dwelleth  in 
respectabihties  and  decencies  dwelleth  in  God;  for 
God  is  respectability."  Nor,  "He  who  dwelleth  in 
feeling  and  emotion  dwelleth  in  God ;  for  God  is 
emotion."  No  ;  LOVE  is  something  higher  than  emo- 
tion, ritual,  creed,  decency ;  it  is  the  soul  going  out 
of  itself  in  generosity,  giving  itself  to  truth  and 
duty,  living  for  these.  "Blessed  are  the  pure  in 
heart ;  they  shall  see  God." 

I  think  that  w^e  believe  in  God  when  we  believe  in 
that  which  is  divine  in  all  things ;  when  we  see  in 
men  something  divine  and  noble  in  the  midst  of  all 
that  is  evil;   when  we  see  in  childhood  something 


72  COMMON-SENSE  IN  RELIGION. 

divine,  and  revere  the  innocence  yet  unstained  by  the 
world.  So,  too,  we  believe  in  God  when  we  love  our 
friends,  not  because  they  are  of  use  to  us,  not  because 
our  tastes  and  theirs  happen  to  agree  just  now,  but 
because  we  see  and  admire  in  them  some  innate 
beauty  which  God  stamps  on  each  soul  when  he 
makes  it ;  some  connate  and  inborn  charm  of  spon- 
taneous sweetness,  or  courage,  or  honor,  or  aspiration, 
or  reverence,  or  humility,  or  conscience,  which  God 
gave  them  in  his  counsel  before  the  foilndation  of  the 
world.  And  we  see  God  when  we  love  all  his  crea- 
tures, w^hether  they  are  sympathetic  with  us  or  anti- 
pathetic, when  we  overlook  their  faults  and  pardon 
their  offences,  and  care  for  their  souls,  as  God  and 
Christ  care  for  their  souls.  This  is  divine  love,  true 
love,  which  sees  God ;  which  whosoever  has  dwells  in 
God  and  God  in  him.  He  may  have  many  faults, 
vices,  follies,  sins,  but  this  generosity  in  his  heart  is 
the  redeeming  element;  this  is  Christ  born  within 
him,  the  hope  of  glory ;  this  gives  him  a  solid  inward 
peace  and  satisfaction,  and  makes  him  assured  and 
confident  before  God. 

Obedience  leads  to  love,  and  love  to  right.  By 
doing  right  we  come  to  love  right.  We  may  not  love 
it  at  first  as  much  as  wrong,  but  as  we  continue  to  do 
it,  we  grow  to  love  it.  Better  one  act  of  obedience 
than  many  words  of  praise  and  prayer. 


GOD.  73 

Let  us  consider  what  our  Saviour  said  of  the  two 
servants,  one  of  whom  said  "  I  go/'  and  went  not ; 
while  the  other  said  "  I  go  not/'  and  then  repented 
and  went.  These  two  servants  are  Mr.  Profession 
and  Mr.  Practice.  Mr.  Profession  is  always  saying 
to  the  Almighty,  "I  am  going  to  serve  thee  and 
love  thee  and  obey  thee.  I  thank  thee,  O  Lord, 
that  I  am  not  as  other  men  are,  —  impenitent, 
worldly,  lovers  of  pleasure,  or  even  as  this  poor 
heretic.  I  go  to  prayer-meeting,  and  I  believe  all  the 
creeds."  But  then,  having  said  that,  he  stops  there, 
and  he  is  no  nobler,  purer,  juster,  than  other  men. 
Mr.  Practice,  on  the  other  hand,  says,  "  I  don't  be- 
lieve in  religion ;  I  don't  think  much  of  the  church ; 
I  have  my  doubts  about  Jesus  Christ " ;  and  he  goes 
and  does  just  what  Jesus  wishes  him  to  do.  If  he 
sees  a  poor  man,  he  helps  him ;  if  he  finds  a  sick  man, 
he  takes  care  of  him;  if  a  stranger  comes  to  him 
wanting  work,  he  sees  if  he  cannot  get  something  for 
him  to  do.  So  Mr.  Profession  and  Mr.  Practice  di- 
vide religion  between  them.  The  one  says  it,  and 
the  other  does  it.  But  ouglit  not  each  of  them  to 
say  it  and  do  it  too  ?  What  should  we  think  of  it, 
if  artists,  chemists,  engineers,  lawyers,  physicians, 
should  divide  their  occupations  in  this  way  ?  One 
man  professes  to  be  a  physician,  keeps  his  office 
4 


74  COMMON-SENSE  IN  EELIGION. 

open,  with  his  name  on  the  side  of  the  door,  but 
refuses  to  go  and  see  any  sick  person.  Another 
denies  that  he  is  a  physician,  keeps  no  office,  declares 
he  has  no  faith  in  medicine,  and  yet  spends  his  time 
in  iinding  sick  people  and  privately  administering 
drugs  for  their  relief.  We  should  think  it  a  very 
odd  and  unnecessary  division  of  labor.  We  should 
say,  "  This  ought  ye  to  have  done,  but  not  to  leave 
the  other  undone." 

To  believe  in  an  Infinite  Perfection,  and  to  wor- 
ship it,  is  the  first  and  greatest  of  human  duties.  It 
is  the  root  and  the  fountain  of  all.  The  sense  of  a 
Supreme  Good  and  Beauty,  the  feeling  of  an  Ineffa- 
ble Majesty  and  Holiness,  the  belief  in  one  Supreme 
and  Perfect  Being,  —  this  gives  unity,  aim,  consis- 
tency, stability,  to  our  life.  Without  it,  what  are 
we  ?  where  are  we  ?  Motes  in  the  sunbeam,  coming 
from  nothing,  going  nowhere. 

When  God  asks  us  to  put  our  trust  in  him,  it 
is  not  for  his  sake  he  asks  it,  but  for  ours.  It  is 
because  we  need  this  faith  for  peace,  progress, 
goodness.  We  need  to  have  faith  in  a  Supreme 
Being,  whose  name  and  nature  is  love  ;  who  fills  the 
heavens  and  earth  with  his  benign  presence,  and  is 
guiding  all  the  events  of  time  to  the  great  consum- 
mation of  a  glorious  be^utj^.     If  we  deem  this  world 


GOD.  75 

the  sport  of  chance  or  the  slave  of  fate,  if  we  look 
up  to  an  Infinite  Despotism  enthroned  in  the  heavens, 
if  God  seems  to  us  cruel  or  hard  or  cold,  —  then  there 
is  a  seed  of  bitterness  in  the  soul  which  no  outward 
prosperity  can  sweeten.  We  need  to  have  faith  in 
perfect  love,  infinite  wisdom,  and  a  fatherly  provi- 
dence in  order  to  have  any  inward  content  or  peace. 

There  is  a  pliilosophy,  as  we  have  seen,  which  tells 
us  that  we  cannot  know  God ;  that  the  Infinite  and 
Absolute  are  beyond  the  reach  of  our  finite  faculties. 
But  the  best  answer  to  this  is,  that  men  everywhere 
do  feel  after  God  and  find  him;  that  the  idea  of 
the  Infinite  is  just  as  natural  to  us  as  the  idea  of  the 
finite ;  that  the  idea  of  a  perfect  being  comes  to  us  at 
the  same  time  with  the  notion  of  an  imperfect  being. 
You  cannot  think  of  something  which  is  imperfect 
without  at  the  same  time  thinking  of  the  perfect. 
When  I  say  a  thing  is  imperfect,  I  mean  that  it  is 
not  perfect ;  that  is,  the  idea  of  the  perfect  must  be 
in  my  mind  in  order  to  think  of  imperfection.  There- 
fore, though  it  may  be  improper  according  to  meta- 
physics to  know  the  Infinite  Being,  it  is  impossible, 
in  practice,  not  to  know  him.  God  is  in  aU  our 
thoughts,  whether  we  recognize  him  there  or  not; 
he  is  the  necessary  element  of  all  thinking.  In  spite 
of  metaphysics,  therefore,  we  can  know  God;  and, 


76  COMMON-SENSE  IN  RELIGION. 

\vhatever  the  philosophers  may  say,  we  may  venture 
to  believe  in  the  Infinite  and  the  EternaL 

There  is  also  a  theology  of  nescience  which  joins 
hands  with  the  philosophy  of  nescience  in  denying 
our  knowledge  of  God.  It  proposes  certain  doctrines 
(such,  for  example,  as  the  Trinity  or  the  Atonement), 
making  assertions  concerning  the  nature  of  God, 
making  assertions  concerning  the  moral  nature  of 
God;  and  when  we  urge  objections  to  these  doc- 
trines, we  are  told  that  they  are  mysteries.  Now 
that  there  are  mysteries  everywhere,  in  nature  and 
providence,  we  all  know ;  that  there  are  mysteries  in 
God  and  in  man.  But  revelation  is  the  unveiling  of 
God;  it  is  removing  mystery  and  letting  in  light. 
When  God  sent  Christ  into  the  world  he  said,  as  in 
the  beginning,  "Let  there  be  light;  and  there  was 
LIGHT."     Where  revelation  begins,  mystery  ends. 

The  Jewish  prophets  and  priests  taught  that  rev- 
elation was  a  mystery,  in  the  same  way  as  now,  and 
were  rebuked  for  it  by  Isaiah  in  words  which  have 
the  same  force  to-day.*  "And  the  vision  of  all  is 
become  unto  you  as  the  words  of  a  book  that  is  sealed, 
which  men  deliver  to  one  that  is  learned,  saying, 
Eead  this,  I  pray  thee :  and  he  saith,  I  cannot ;  for 
it  is  sealed.   And  the  book  is  delivered  to  him  that  is 

*  Isaiah  xxix.  11. 


GOD.  77 

not  learned,  saying,  Eead  this,  I  pray  thee :  and  he 
saith,  I  am  not  learned."  If  you  go  to  the  laity 
and  speak  to  them  of  the  simplicity  of  the  gospel, 
and  ask  them  to  look  for  themselves  into  its  truths, 
with  independent  and  free  minds,  they  say,  "  We  can- 
not; for  we  are  not  learned:  these  are  theological 
questions,  questions  for  the  clergy.  We  accept  what 
they  tell  us,  and  let  it  alone.  We  do  not  trouble 
ourselves  about  it."  If  then  you  go  to  the  clergy, 
and  ask  them  for  a  rational  and  intelligible  view  of 
God,  in  accordance  with  nature  and  conscience,  they 
reply,  "  It  is  a  mystery."  The  Church,  to-day,  con- 
tinues to  erect  altars  to  the  unknown  God. 

I  do  not  object  to  theological  mysteries  on  grounds 
of  reason  chiefly.  The  harm  done  by  such  doctrines 
is,  that  they  put  God  at  a  distance  from  us,  when 
he  is  near  by.  They  teach  us  that  he  is  an  unknown 
God,  to  be  worshipped  ignorantly,  when  he  wishes 
us  to  come  to  him  and  see  him  as  a  Father.  There 
are  enough  of  mysteries  in  the  world,  but  mystery 
is  no  part  of  revelation.  Eevelation  is  the  taking 
away  of  mystery,  the  unveiling  of  God's  face.  When 
people,  therefore,  speak  of  "  revealed  mysteries,"  they 
utter  a  contradiction  in  terms. 

Our  God  is  not  a  mystery.  He  is  not  an  unknown 
God.     He  is  the  God  declared  by  Paul,  "in  whom 


78  COMMON-SENSE  IN   RELIGION. 

we  live  and  move  and  have  our  being  "  ;  "  who  is  not 
far  from  any  one  of  us  " ;  "  who  has  made  of  one 
blood  all  nations  of  men  to  dwell  on  all  the  face  of 
the  earth."  He  is  the  Father  and  Friend  of  all ;  the 
friend  of  black  and  white,  of  freeman  and  slave,  of 
the  wise  and  the  foolish,  of  the  good  and  the  bad. 
Every  man,  even  the  -  most  sceptical  and  most 
worldly  man,  has  an  altar  somewhere  in  his  heart 
to  the  unknown  God.  He  is  worshipping  the  true 
God  sometimes,  though  ignorantly.  He  is  feeling 
after  God,  if  haply  he  may  find  him,  who  is  not  far 
from  him.     He  needs  to  be  told  how  near  God  is. 

From  the  convent  of  the  Great  St.  Bernard  the 
monks  went  forth  one  morning  after  a  night  of  storm 
ands  now,  and  found  lying  close  to  their  walls  the 
frozen  body  of  a  traveller.  They  saw,  by  the  foot- 
tracks,  that  he  must  have  been  for  hours  toiling  on 
through  the  dreadful  drifts,  and  all  the  time  not  a 
quarter  of  a  mile  from  the  hospitable  convent.  Had 
he  known  that  he  was  so  near,  half  an  hour  would 
have  taken  him  out  of  the  terrible  cold  into  warmth 
and  shelter  and  light,  to  a  comfortable  meal  and  a 
peaceful  sleep. 

But  just  so  do  men  struggle  alone,  amid  the  storms" 
and  cold  selfishness  of  the  world,  feeling  after  a  God 
who  they  think  is  far  off,  when  he  is  not  far  from 


GOD.  79 

any  one  of  them.  So  do  they  spend  long  years  of 
life  away  from  God,  when  in  a  moment,  if  they  chose, 
they  might  be  taken  into  the  warmth  and  comfort  of 
his  sheltering  love.  They  are  near  God,  but  do  not 
know  it.  They  need  to  know  Him  whom  they  already 
ignorantly  worship.  For  there  is  no  one  wholly 
without  God  in  the  world.  There  is  no  one  who 
does  not  have  an  altar,  at  least  to  the  "unknown 
God,"  in  his  heart. 

Many  men  erect  this  altar  to  God  under  the  name 
of  law.  These  are  men  of  science.  They  worship 
the  order  of  the  universe,  and  they  do  not  know  that 
they  are  worshipping  God.  They  may  call  them- 
selves Atheists  or  Christians.  They  need  to  see 
that  this  magnificent  stability  of  the  universe,  this 
grand  web  of  law  which  they  study  and  adore,  is 
not  dead  law,  but  living  law ;  that  it  is  the  perpetual 
act  of  God.  They  need  to  see  that  what  they  call 
law  is  only  God's  steady  and  uniform  course  of  action, 
and  that  behind  and  within  all  this  law  is  Divine 
love,  an  infinite  tendency  of  things  toward  a  perfect 
good ;  all  things  working  together  for  that.  Science 
remains  cold,  material,  dead,  so  long  as  it  is  irre- 
ligious, because  unspiritualized.  If  men  of  science 
only  knew  it,  they  would  see  that  they  are  ignorantly 
worshipping  God  when  they  worship  law.     It  is  not 


80  COMMON-SENSE  IN   RELIGION. 

necessary  for  tlieui  to  abandon  science  in  order  to  be 
religious.  Let  their  science  be  filled  with  love,  and 
that  is  religion.  The  lecture-room  may  be  made 
a  temple ;  the  most  abstract  mathematics  become  a 
liturgy;  the  cabinet  of  geology,  mineralogy,  botany, 
a  chapel  filled  with  more  sacred  relics  than  the  bones 
of  dead  saints,  because  they  are  relics  of  God's  pres- 
ence, and  bear  the  marks  of  his  creating  thought  and 
forming  hand.  Science  does  not  need  to  be  silent 
before  religion,  but  only  to  know  the  God  whom  she 
already  ignorantly  worships. 

And  so  every  generous  action,  every  honest  thought, 
every  sincere  effort  to  do  right,  is  really  a  part  of  the 
worship  of  God.  Many  a  man  who  thinks  he  has  no 
religion,  and  is  too  honest  to  pretend  to  have  it  when 
he  has  it  not,  is  really  worshipping  God.  The  more 
we  love  each  other  the  more  we  can  love  him.  For 
all-  true  love  seeks  what  is  noblest  and  best  in  its 
object,  seeks  for  whatever  is  really  good  and  deep  and 
noble  in  the  character.  It  does  not  attach  itself  to 
the  low  and  mean  part  of  a  man,  but  to  the  highest 
and  best  thing  in  him ;  that  is,  to  some  manifestation 
of  God  in  him,  to  something  in  which  God  shows 
himself  in  man.  In  your  friend,  you  see  what  he 
does  not  see  himself;  you  see  some  deeper  element, 
some    capacity   of    nobleness,   some   divine    charm, 


GOD.  81 

something  which  God  has  put  in  his  soul,  and  meant 
to  be  there  forever.  Beneath  what  perhaps  is  actu- 
ally commonplace  and  trivial,  you  see  the  possibility 
of  nobleness,  the  inward  tendency  toward  something 
good.  That  is  what  you  love  in  your  friend;  you 
never  love  the  mean  part  of  him,  but  always  the 
better  and  nobler  part  of  him. 

In  the  teaching  and  life  of  Jesus  God  comes  still 
nearer  to  man.  The  veil  of  mystery  is  taken  away. 
Jesus  teaches  that  he  is  the  "Universal  Father,  whose 
sun  shines  on  the  evil  and  the  good."  He  teaches  that 
he  is  "a  spirit,  and  that  those  who  worship  him 
must  worship  him  in  spirit  and  in  truth."  We  come 
near  to  God  and  know  him  when  we  assume  the 
attitude  of  children.  "  No  one  knoweth  the  Father 
but  the  Son,  and  he  to  whom  the  Son  shall  re- 
veal him."  Jesus  knew  God  by  becoming  his  Son ; 
trusting  him,  loving  him,  obeying  him,  walking  with 
him,  talking  with  him,  as  a  son  trusts,  loves,  obeys, 
walks  with,  talks  with,  his  father.  When  Jesus  lived 
with  God  in  this  entire,  childlike  trust,  he  revealed 
him,  nevermore  to  be  a  mystery.  Henceforth  God 
has  put  his  spirit  into  our  hearts,  by  which  we  too 
may  say  Ahha,  Father.  When  we  assume  the  atti- 
tude of  sons,  we  also  know  God,  and  are  able  to 
reveal  him  to  others. 

4*  .-  -  F 


IV. 

THE  BIBLE  AND  INSPIRATION. 


IV. 

THE    BIBLE    AND    INSPIRATION. 

The  view  of  inspiration  which  has  been  diligently 
taught  in  the  Protestant  Church  has  probably  done 
great  harm  to  the  Bible.  It  has  made  it  the  word 
of  God  in  such  a  sense  that  it  has  ceased  to  be  the 
word  of  man.  It  has  surrounded  it  with  an  awe 
which  has  kept  men  at  a  distance.  We  are  taught 
not  to  speak  about  the  Bible,  or  study  it,  as  we 
would  any  other  book.  It  is  too  sacred  for  that. 
Every  word  in  the  Bible,  from  Genesis  to  Eevelation, 
is  the  word  of  God,  so  we  must  not  criticise,  doubt, 
or  question  any  part  of  it.  If  we  see  contradictions 
between  different  portions  of  this  book,  we  must 
refuse  to  admit  them.  It  is  all  sacred,  aU  holy,  be- 
cause it  is  all  the  word  of  God,  and  no  part  of  it  the 
word  of  man.  The  lines  which  Scott  has  put  into 
the  mouth  of  the  White  Lady  of  Avenel,  said  to 
have  been  afterward  copied  by  Lord  Byron  on  the 
fly-leaf  of  his  Bible,  express  the  popular  idea:  — 

**  "Within  this  awful  volume  lies 
The  mystery  of  mysteries. 


86  COMMON-SENSE  IN  RELIGION. 

Happiest  they  of  human  race 
To  whom  our  God  hath  granted  grace 
To  read,  to  hear,  to  hope,  to  pray, 
To  lift  the  latch,  and  force  the  way. 
But  hetter  had  he  ne'er  been  bom 
Who  reads  to  doubt,  or  reads  to  scorn." 

That  we  should  respect  the  Bible,  and  not  treat  it 
with  indifference,  is  right ;  that  we  should  worship  it 
as  an  idol,  is  bad.  The  chief  harm  done  by  this 
doctrine  is,  that  it  destroys  our  interest  in  the  Bible 
itself.  For  the  main  interest  of  a  book  is,  that  it 
excites  thought  and  feeling  in  our  own  mind.  But 
to  think  and  feel,  we  must  be  free.  If  we  are  tied 
beforehand  to  certain  conclusions  and  certain  emo- 
tions, the  soul  is  stupefied,  and  its  vital  interest 
frozen.  As  long  as  we  look  at  the  Bible  with  awe 
and  reverence  only,  we  do  not  really  love  it.  We 
put  it  on  our  centre-table,  we  present  copies  of  it  as 
birthday  presents  and  wedding  gifts,  but  seldom  read 
it.  We  regard  it  as  making  the  house  a  little  safer, 
as  having  a  sort  of  sacramental  influence,  but  we 
find  it  hard  work  to  look  into  it.  We  may  read  the 
Bible  as  a  duty  or  study  it  as  a  task;  that  is  alL 
To  read  the  Bible  in  this  way  is  the  sacrament 
of  Protestants ;  being  to  many  what  the  mass  is  to 
Catholics,  and  possessing  a  mysterious  saving  grace. 


THE  BIBLE  AND   INSPIRATION.  87 

apart  from  any  moral  or  intellectual  influence.  Thus 
some  persons  read  the  Bible  through,  from  Genesis  to 
Eevelation,  several  times  in  their  lives.  This  is  a 
religious  tour  de  forcBy  an  act  of  self-sacrifice  supposed 
to  have  merit. 

The  curious  fact  in  regard  to  this  theory  of  verbal 
inspiration  is,  that  the  Bible  itself  makes  no  such 
claim.  The  word  "  inspiration  "  occurs  only,  twice : 
once  in  the  Old  Testament,  and  again  in  the  Kew 
Testament  (2  Timothy  iiL  16).  This  last  text  is,  in  fact, 
the  great  proof-text  of  the  doctrine,  and  is  so  often 
quoted  as  conclusive  evidence,  that  we  are  apt  to 
suppose  that  it  claims  some  kind  of  verbal  inspira- 
tion for  the  Scriptures,  according  to  the  doctrine  of 
Church  orthodoxy.  It  does  no  such  thing.  First,  it 
does  not  say  what  Scripture  is  inspired;  secondly, 
it  does  not  define  the  sort  of  inspiration.  Probably 
the  passage  means  either  that  all  Scripture  which  is 
written  by  inspired  men  is  profitable,  or  that  all 
Scripture  which  is  so  profitable  is  written  by  inspired 
men.  The  Christian  Church  has  practically  adopted 
the  last  interpretation;  for  it  took  the  Church  three 
centuries  to  make  up  its  mind  what  books  ought  to 
belong  to  the  N'ew  Testament.  It  selected  those  it 
found  profitable,  and  dropped  the  rest.  The  Epistle 
of  Barnabas,  after  having  belonged  to  the  Christian 


88  COMMON-SENSE  IN   RELIGION. 

Scripture  for  three  hundred  years,  dropped  out  of  the 
'New  Testament  in  the  fourth  century. 

Every  extreme  produces  a  reaction  toward  the 
other  extreme.  The  reaction  from  the  doctrine  of 
verbal  inspiration  is  to  the  denial  of  all  inspiration. 
Because  we  cannot  believe  that  everything  in  the 
Bible  is  divine,  we  refuse  to  see  the  infinite  majesty, 
beauty,  and  glory  which  are  so  generally  present  in 
it.  People  who  begin  by  worshipping  the  Bible 
often  end  by  disliking  it.  But  when  this  book,  which 
will  always  be  The  Book,  is  valued  for  what  it  is 
rather  than  for  what  it  is  not,  it  will  be  more 
reverenced  and  loved  than  it  ever  has  been.  It 
will  cease  to  be  an  idol,  but  will  become  more  than 
ever  a  friend,  helper,  consoler.  It  will  cease  to  be 
our  master,  and  so  will  become  more  than  ever  our 
teacher  and  companion. 

It  is  an  intellectual  error  to  deny  inspiration  ;  for  a 
large  part  of  the  truth  we  possess  comes  to  us  through 
that  channel.  Only  we  must  not  limit  inspiration  to 
the  Jews,  and  suppose  no  other  race  capable  of  it. 
There  are  two  methods  of  getting  truth  :  one  is  per- 
ception, or  looking  out;  the  other  inspiration,  or 
looking  in.  Perception  without  inspiration  makes 
the  pedant,  the  dry  man  of  details,  the  collector  of 
facts,  who  can  do  nothing  with  them  after  he  has 


THE  BIBLE  AND  INSPIEATION.  89 

them.  Inspiration  without  perception  makes  the 
mystic,  the  visionary,  the  mere  theorist.  Perception 
joined  with  inspiration  makes  the  man  of  genius, 
the  man  of  science,  the  discoverer,  the  statesman,  the 
poet,  the  prophet.  No  great  thing  was  ever  accom- 
plished in  this  world  without  inspiration. 

But  inspiration  is  of  different  kinds  and  different 
degrees.  There  is  the  inspiration  of  the  artist  and 
poet,  or  of  the  thinker  and  philosopher.  There  is 
the  inspiration  of  the  lawgiver  and  statesman,  of 
the  prophet  and  saint.  There  is  artistic  inspiration, 
poetic  inspiration,  religious  inspiration.  The  com- 
mon quality  in  all  is  the  reception  of  influence 
from  a  higher  sphere,  an  opening  of  the  mind  for 
higher  influence,  a  light  from  within  and  from 
above. 

Why  do  we  call  the  poet  inspired  ?  What  is  his 
inspiration  ?  It  is  that  he  does  not  manufacture 
his  poetry,  does  not  reason  it  out  by  logic,  does  not 
make  it  mechanically.  He  looks  up,  waits,  listens, 
looks.  At  last"  some  gleam  of  beauty  drops  into  his 
soul,  some  vision  of  unimagined  truth  dawns  on  his 
mind.  He  lies  open  to  God  and  heaven,  to  the  great 
glories  of  nature,  to  the  sweet  charm  of  life  and  love ; 
and  then  there  comes  to  him,  spontaneously,  his  idea 
and  images.     As  Shakespeare  says,  — 


90  COMMON-SENSE  IN  RELIGION. 

*'  The  poet's  eye,  in  a  fine  frenzy  rolling, 
Doth  glance  from  heaven  to  earth,  from  earth  to  heaven ; 
And  as  imagination  bodies  forth 
The  forms  of  things  unknown,  the  poet's  pen 
Turns  them  to  shapes,  and  gives  to  airy  nothing 
A  local  habitation  and  a  name." 

Inspiration,  in  any  direction,  means  the  descent  of 
some  liigher  truth  into  the  soul  by  vital  processes, 
not  merely  logical  or  mechanical.  Take,  for  an 
example,  the  case  of  the  Greeks.  God  selected  the 
Greeks  from  all  nations  of  men,  to  be  the  masters 
and  guides  of  the  world  in  literature  and  art.  They, 
too,  were  a  chosen  nation,  a  peculiar  people.  Almost 
every  form  of  beauty  sprang  into  being  by  a  special 
inspiration.  No  one  copied  another ;  each  went  on 
his  own  path,  where  he  saw  some  divine  beauty  lead- 
ing the  way.  So  they  became  teachers  of  men  in  the 
domain  of  beauty.  Homer  teaches  us  forever  what 
epic  poetry  is;  Herodotus  is  the  father  of  history; 
jEschylus  is  the  father  of  tragedy ;  Aristophanes  of 
comedy ;  Pindar  of  the  ode ;  Demosthenes  of  oratory. 
The  inspired  sculptors  carved  in  statues  the  ideal 
forms  of  gods  and  men.  The  inspired  architects 
built  a  Parthenon,  whose  perfect  beauty,  even  when 
shattered  and  crumbling,  surpasses  all  we  can  do 
to-day. 


THE  BIBLE  AND   INSPIRATION.  91 

Every  one  admits  that  the  Greeks  teach  with 
authority  in  this  domain  of  beauty,  but  no  one 
supposes  them  to  be  infallible. 

The  real  reason  which  has  influenced  the  Church 
to  invent  and  maintain  the  doctrine  of  an  infallible 
inspiration  is  a  supposed  necessity.  On  the  same 
ground  the  Eoman  Catholics  defend  the  infallibility 
of  the  Church.  Unless  the  Church  is  infalHble,  say 
the  Catholics,  how  can  it  teach  with  authority  ?  Un- 
less the  Bible  is  infallible,  say  the  Protestants,  how 
can  it  teach  with  authority  ? 

E"ow,  we  may  readily  admit  that,  in  order  to  learn, 
and  to  make  progress,  we  need  teachers  who  shall 
speak  with  a  certain  sort  of  authority.  We  need  to 
believe  in  our  teacher's  laiowledge,  in  order  to  open 
our  mind  to  him,  and  to  listen  with  interest  and 
docility  to  his  instruction.  But  I  do  not  believe 
that  any  faith  in  an  infallible  Church,  an  infallible 
Bible,  or  even  an  infallible  Christ,  is  necessary  for 
this  purpose.  What  is  the  argument  for  the  verbal 
infallibility  of  the  Bible  ?  Not  that  its  writers  claim 
it;  they  do  not.  Not  that  there  are  no  contradic- 
tions and  errors  of  language  and  facts ;  for  these  are 
numerous.  It  is  asserted  only  from  a  supposed 
necessity,  a  supposed  need  of  some  infallible  author- 
ity.    The   Catholics   have  their  infallible   Church; 


92  COMMON-SENSE  IN  RELIGION.' 

Protestants  must  have  their  infallible  Bible.  People 
will  not  beheve  in  the  Bible  or  its  truths,  it  is 
thought,  unless  they  are  pronounced  infallible  in 
every  part.  It  must  be  so  full  of  inspiration  that  it 
shall  run  over  at  either  end,  so  that  even  the  Book 
of  Genesis  shall  teach  us  an  infallible  geology  and 
chronology,  and  the  Book  of  Eevelation  declare  the 
fate  of  Pope  Pius  IX.  Let  people  begin  to  doubt 
that  every  part  of  the  Bible,  even  Solomon's  Song,  is 
the  Word  of  God,  and  presently,  it  is  said,  they  will 
doubt  the  whole.  Unless  they  believe  that  the  whale 
swallowed  Jonah,  they  will  give  up  the  Sermon  on 
the  Mount  and  the  Parable  of  the  Good  Samaritan. 
But  how  is  it  in  other  things  ?  How  is  it  in  liistory, 
in  science,  in  mathematics  ?  Let  us  see  what  com- 
mon-sense teaches  about  it. 

No  one  supposes  that  Newton  was  inspired  infalli- 
bly when  he  wrote  the  Principia.  But  all  mankind 
accepted  his  theories ;  and  though  not  one  person  in  a 
thousand  can  understand  his  reasoning,  no  one  doubts 
his  conclusions.  He  is  an  authority,  though  he  is 
not  infallible. 

No  one  believes  Gibbon  infallibly  inspired  to  write 
his  Decline  and  Fall.  But  it  is  so  much  of  an  au- 
thority to  this  day,  that  Niebuhr,  the  chief  Eoman 
historian  of  our  time,  knew  his  Gibbon   by  heart,. 


THE   BIBLE  AND   INSPIRATION.  93 

and  tells  us  that  no  one  can  improve  on  that  great 
work. 

It  is  knowledge  which  creates  authority  in  a  teacher. 
Faraday  is  an  authority  in  chemistry,  Agassiz  in  nat- 
ural history,  Peirce  in  mathematics;  but  who  sup- 
poses them  to  be  infallible  ? 

The'  common-sense  view  of  the  Bible  is,  that  it  is 
our  guide  and  our  teacher,  because  it  is  full  of  truth. 
It  is  because  it  is  so  compact  with  Divine  things, 
that  we  say  it  is  from  God.  We  do  not  say  it  is  true 
because  it  is  inspired;  but  we  say  it  is  inspired 
because  it  is  true.  It  is  a  book,  we  may  safely  say, 
that  will  never  be  superseded,  any  more  than  Homer, 
Dante,  Shakespeare,  will  be  superseded.  It  will  grow 
in  interest  immensely,  in  proportion  as  we  study  it 
intelligently  and  freely.  When  we  make  no  ex- 
travagant claims  for  it,  but  let  it  rest  on  its  own 
merits,  infidelity  will  cease  to  attack  it.  If  there  is 
anything  in  it  you  do  not  understand,  wait  till  you 
do.  If  there  is  anything  you  cannot  believe,  pass  it 
by.     There  is  enough  left  which  you  can  believe. 

The  Bible  "is  profitable  for  doctrine,  for  reproof, 
for  correction,  for  instruction  in  righteousness."  It, 
has  guided  men  to  God  through  all  these  long  cen- 
turies ;  it  has  civilized  humanity,  sustained  mourners, 
comforted  sorrow,  created  happy  homes,  made  family 


94  COMMON-SENSE  IN  EELIGION. 

life  peaceful,  awakened  an  interest  in  truth,  quickened 
the  intellect,  opened  heaven  to  the  dying,  and  given 
hope  in  the  midst  of  despair.  A  book  that  does  this 
does  not  need  to  be  propped  up  by  theological  theo- 
ries; it  can  stand  and  walk  alone,  and  take  care 
of  itself.  It  does  not  need  to  be  protected  by  laws 
against  blasphemy ;  the  love  and  gratitude  of  men 
are  a  sufficient  protection.  It  does  not  need  to  be 
made  a  master,  to  enslave  the  intellect;  the  more 
free  our  thought  is  to  inquire  and  examine,  the  more 
we  shall  come  to  honor  it,  to  love  it,  and  to  believe 
in  it.  Why  is  not  this  enough  ?  Why  manufacture 
a  theory  of  inspiration  to  strengthen  that  which  is 
already  strong  enough  without  it  ?  It  is  as  though 
you  should  erect  a  wooden  scaJBTold  round  the  great 
Pyramid  to  hold  it  up. 

Inspiration  is  insight,  and  insight  is  immediate 
knowledge.  The  inspired  poet  sees  beauty ;  the  in- 
spired prophet  sees  truth.  Knowledge  carries  its 
own  evidence.  He  who  knows  anything  thoroughly 
becomes  an  authority  to  us.     That  is  enough. 

I  meet  a  man  who  has  just  come  from  the  centre 
of  Africa.  It  is  Dr.  Livingstone,  or  it  is  Burton  or 
Speke.  He  describes  what  he  saw,  his  long  labors, 
his  sufferings,  his  cruel  hardships.  He  tells  how  he 
at  last  saw  the  vast  lake,  Victoria  Nyanza,  opening 


THE  BIBLE  AND   INSPIEATION.  95 

before  him,  and  came  to  where  the  Nile  issued  from 
it.  For  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  the  world  a 
civilized  man  has  seen  the  source  of  the  Nile.  That 
which  Herodotus,  four  hundred  years  before  Christ, 
only  guessed,  we  hear  described  by  the  man  who  saw 
it.  Well,  do  we  say,  "  We  cannot  believe  your  story 
unless  you  are  infallibly  inspired  to  tell  the  truth  ?  " 
No.  The  story  is  its  own  evidence.  The  man  carries 
authority  in  his  words,  his  tones,  his  vivid  descrip- 
tions, his  perfect  knowledge  of  all  he  says.  Truth  is 
its  own  sufficient  proof.  A  man  who  has  been  where 
we  have  not  been,  and  seen  what  we  have  not  seen, 
is  an  authority  to  us,  because  he  knows  all  about 
what  he  says. 

Now,  the  Bible  is  such  an  authority  as  this,  from 
Genesis  to  Eevelation.  It  is  so  vital,  so  full  of  ex- 
perience, so  rich  in  its  varied  history,  so  full  of 
human  hope  and  love  and  faith,  that  it  will  always 
draw  men  unto  it  and  be  the  guide  of  mankind  in 
religion  and  morals.  As  the  Greeks  were  chosen, 
in  the  providence  of  God,  to  be  the  inspired  teachers 
of  beauty  in  art  and  literature^  so  the  Jews  were 
chosen,  more  than  any  other  people,  to  'be  the 
teachers  in  religion.  They  were  made  the  inspired 
teachers  of  Divine  truth,  and  their  sacred  books  will 
always  be  the  chief  sacred  books  of  mankind. 


96  COMMON-SENSE  IN  KELIGION. 

The  common-sense  view  of  the  Bible  requires  us 
to  distinguish  between  its  different  parts.  It  ad- 
vances step  by  step  in  its  teaching.  The  Book  of 
Genesis  teaches  that  there  is  one  Supreme  God, 
maker  of  heaven  and  earth,  above  all  other  gods. 
King  of  kings  and  Lord  of  lords.  The  first  chapter 
of  Genesis  is  not  meant  to  teach  geology,  but  to  teach 
monotheism.  The  Persians  believed  that  the  sun, 
moon,  and  stars  were  gods.  Genesis  teaches  that 
they  were  the  creatures  of  God.  "God  made  two 
great  lights;  the  greater  light  to  rule  the  day,  the 
lesser  light  to  rule  the  night:  he  made  the  stars 
also."  The  Egyptians  believed  that  beasts  and  birds 
were  divine,  and  worshipped  them.  Genesis  says, 
"  God  said.  Let  the  waters  bring  forth  abundantly  the 
moving  creatures  that  have  life :  let  the  earth  bring 
forth  the  living  creatures  after  his  kind." 

The  story  of  Abraham  and  the  patriarchs  takes 
another  step,  and  teaches  faith  in  Providence.  This 
Divine  Being,  who  made  the  world,  is  a  friend  to  his 
creatures.  They  can  talk  with  his  angels,  and  trust 
in  his  care.  How  sweet  are  the  pictures  of  home, 
of  the  patriarchs  in  their  tents,  of  their  manly,  mod- 
est confidence  in  their  Heavenly  Protector.  It  is  like 
looking  through  a  time  telescope,  which  carries  us 
back  four  thousand  years,  and  shows  to  us  a  scene 


THE   BIBLE  AND   INSPIRATION.  97 

of  domestic  life  in  its  childlike  simplicity  and  trust. 
It  commends  itself  as  truth.  It  needs  no  infallible 
inspiration  to  make  us  believe  this  honest,  simple 
record. 

Then  another  step  is  taken  by  Moses  in  his  law. 
He  teaches  duty,  morality,  obedience;  that  God  re- 
wards the  good  and  punishes  the  evil.  How  sublime, 
and  yet  how  plain,  are  these  instructions  !  How  he 
joins  piety  and  morality  in  the  Ten  Commandments  ! 
These  also  stand  on  their  own  authority ;  they  need 
no  inspiration  to  confirm  them. 

Pass  on  to  the  Psalms  of  David  and  the  prophets. 
They  lift  us  on  the  sublime  wings  of  faith,  and  make 
us  commune  with  God.  Even  now,  when  we  wish 
to  express  our  faith  in  Providence,  we  say,  "The 
Lord  is  my  shepherd."  "Wlien  we  look  forward  to 
times  of  peace  and  joy,  we  take  the  words  of 
the  prophets,  and  can  find  nothing  better.  These 
words,  uttered  thousands  of  years  ago,  from  that 
obscure  race,  have  become  the  litanies  of  nations. 
Jesus,  the  Jew,  is  the  teacher  of  mankind.  Why  do 
we  dwell  on  his  words  ?  Why  read  the  Sermon  on 
the  Mount  for  our  guidance  ?  Wliy  are  his  parables 
ever  new  and  fresh  and  full  of  charm  ?  Is  it  because 
of  any  theological  belief  in  their  infallibility  ?  No ; 
but  because  they  are  instinct  with  truth.     It  is  be- 


98  COMMON-SENSE   IN  RELIGION. 

cause  they  are  living  words.  It  is  because,  as  he 
says  himself,  "  The  words  I  speak  to  you,  they  are 
spirit,  and  they  are  life."  Theories,  of  inspiration 
will  pass  away ;  but  his  words  will  never  pass  away. 
They  are  as  new,  as  full  of  inspiration  now,  as  they 
were  at  first ;  the  comfort  of  sorrow,  the  hope  of  the 
dying,  our  strength  and  our  peace.  Unless  we  be- 
lieve the  Bible  plenarily  inspired,  we  shall  not  trust 
it,  so  it  is  said.  It  will  be  no  sufficient  guide  to  us, 
no  adequate  authority.  But  when  I  fall  sick,  I  send 
for  a  physician.  He  prescribes  for  me,  and  I  take 
his  medicine.  I  do  not  know  what  it  is.  It  may  be 
poison ;  most  medicines  are  so.  I  take  the  medicine 
blindly.  'Now,  why  not  insist  that  we  ought  to  be- 
lieve him  infallible  ?  Why  not  get  up  a  theory  of 
plenary  inspiration  about  doctors  ?  Why  not  argue 
that  no  one  will  trust  them  unless  we  assume  that 
they  are  infallible  ?  But  we  do  trust  our'  physician, 
because  we  know  him  to  be  wise,  prudent,  conscien- 
tious, experienced.  We  trust  our  life  to  him,  the 
lives  of  our  children,  the  lives  of  those  we  love  best. 
You  go  to  the  Mammoth  Cave  in  Kentucky.  You 
take  a  guide,  perhaps  the  guide  Stephen,  a  colored 
man,  formerly  a  slave,  —  an  ignorant  man.  You 
know  nothing  of  him  but  this,  that  he  has  guided 
hundreds  of  travellers  before  you,  and  has  guided 


THE  BIBLE  AND   INSPIRATION.  99 

them  safely.  You  enter  the  mysterious  passages. 
You  pass  from  one  chamber  to  another.  Passages 
diverge  in  all  directions ;  still  you  follow  through  the 
great  darkness  the  feeble  lamp  of  your  guide.  You 
descend  precipices,  you  climb  ladders,  you  come  to  a 
river,  and  cross  it  in  a  boat  beneath  an  overhanging 
roof  of  rock.  You  go  on  and  on,  mile  after  mile, 
until  you  seem  to  have  left  forever  the  day  and  upper 
air.  Immense  darkness,  perpetuarnight,  undisturbed 
silence,  broods  around.  You  are  many  miles  from 
the  entrance.  If  your  guide  has  made  any  mistake, 
you  are  lost.  But  you  follow  him  with  entire  confi- 
dence. Why  ?  Do  you  believe  him  to  be  plenarily 
inspired  ?  Do  you  think  him  infallible  ?  Not  at  all. 
But  you  trust  in  his  long  experience.  He  has  guided 
travellers  safely  for  years,  and  that  is  enough.  So 
the  Bible  has  guided  the  footsteps  of  travellers  seek- 
ing truth  and  God.  It  has  brought  generation  after 
generation  out  of  darkness  into  light.  It  leads  us 
through  the  mysterious  depths  of  our  own  experience 
It  goes  sounding  on  along  the  dim  and  perilous  way 
of  human  life.  It  points  out  on  either  side  the  false 
paths  which  would  lead  you  to  death.  It  speaks  with 
authority,  a  far  higher  than  that  of  a  theological 
infallibility.  It  is  full  of  the  Spirit  of  God,  which  is 
the  spirit  of  truth,  and  its  power  is  not  dependent  on 


100  COMMON-SENSE  IN   KELIGION. 

the  theories  of  inspiration  which  the  Church  may 
devise,  but  on  its  own  immortal  life,  its  sublime 
elevation,  its  power  of  bringing  the  soul  to  God 
and  to  peace. 

It  is  a  remarkable  fact  that  the  Apostle  Paul, 
whose  words  are  quoted  as  proof  of  the  doctrine  of 
infallible  inspiration,  declares  his  own  teaching  to  be 
imperfect  and  provisional.  He  states,  as  nearly  as 
possible,  the  doctrine  which  in  modern  times  has 
been  called  "  the  relativity  of  knowledge,"  and  ap- 
phes  it  to  his  own  teaching.  We  refer  to  the  passage 
in  the  thirteenth  chapter  of  the  First  Epistle  to  the 
Corinthians,  where  he  says,  "  We  know  in  part,  and 
prophesy  "  (or  teach)  "  in  part.  But  when  that  which 
is  perfect  is  come,  then  that  which  is  in  part  will  be 
done  away." 

This  is  a  curious  statement  in  itself,  and  curious 
as  coming  from  the  Apostle  Paul.  "Knowledge,"  he 
says,  "  is  partial,  imperfect,  incomplete ;  and  is  there- 
fore to  pass  away."  His  own  knowledge  he  declares 
to  be  thus  imperfect  and  fugitive.  He  puts  himself 
along  with  those  to  whom  he  speaks,  and  thus  con- 
fesses that  everything  which  he  knows  himself,  all 
his  own  system  of  doctrine,  all  his  own  theology,  is 
partial,  and  not  to  continue  forever.  In  other  words, 
he  seems  to  say  that  all  his  present  opinions  about 


THE  BIBLE  AND   INSPIRATION.  101 

God,  Christ,  and  man,  about  sin  and  salvation,  about 
this  world  and  the  other  world,  are  temporary  opin- 
ions which  he  does  not  hope  to  retain  permanently. 
He  expects  to  change  his  opinions  by  and  by,  and 
to  believe  differently.  He  expects  to  give  up  his 
present  creed,  and  to  have  another.  All  creeds,  all 
beliefs,  all  opinions,  are  transient ;  nothing  is  perma- 
nent but  faith,  hope,  and  love.  All  that  we  know 
here  we  shall  know  so  differently  there,  that  it  will 
be  another  knowledge,  and  not  this. 

Now  it  makes  little  difference  whether  he  is  here 
referring  to  the  present  life  or  to  the  future  life,  to 
the  coming  of  Christ  in  this  world  or  in  the  next. 
In  either  case  his  statement  is  a  death-blow  to  all 
kinds  of  bigotry  and  all  kinds  of  dogmatism.  For, 
if  the  Apostle  Paul  supposed  that  his  own  opinions 
were  transient,  and  did  not  expect  to  believe  always 
as  he  believed  then,  how  is  it  possible  that  any  one 
else  should  be  certain  that  his  views  are  to  be  al- 
ways the  same  ?  If  Paul  was  sure,  not  of  the  stabil- 
ity, but  of  the  instability,  of  his  opinions,  who  can 
venture  to  dogmatize  ?  And  yet  while  the  Apostle 
Paul,  the  founder  of  all  Christian  theology,  declared 
his  theology  temporal,  those  who  merely  possess  a 
theology  derived  from  his,  consider  theirs  to  be  eter- 
nal.    He  says  that  his  is  provisional,  and  for  that 


102  COMMON-SENSE   IN   RELIGION. 

time ;  they  think  theirs,  which  is  only  an  inference 
from  his,  to  be  for  all  time.  He  was  vitally  inspired, 
they  are  not.  He  was  a  man  of  profound  insight, 
they  are  shallow.  He  was  a  trained  logician,  their 
logic  is  full  of  gaps  and  flaws.  And  yet  the  view 
which  he  reached  by  means  of  this  wonderful  inspi- 
ration, this  long  experience,  this  profound  thought, 
and  which  he  held  with  the  conviction  of  his  whole 
soul,  he  regarded  as  only  one  view  of  the  truth  ;  while 
all  these  second-rate  system-makers  pronounce  theirs 
to  be  the  only  view  of  the  truth.  This  is  certainly 
a  curious  state  of  things. 

And  many  may  be  inclined  to  think  it  equally 
curious  that  such  a  view  as  this  should  be  taken  at 
all  by  the  Apostle.  Is  it  not,  they  may  say,  a  con- 
fession of  universal  scepticism,  this  admission  tliat 
all  knowledge  is  to  vanish  away  ?  Is  it  not  saying 
that  there  is  no  such  thing  as  absolute  truth  ?  But 
certainly  the  Apostle  Paul  had  not  in  his  constitution 
the  least  tendency  to  scepticism.  His  belief  in  truth 
and  its  reality  is  entire.  All  his  convictions  are 
clear,  deep,  and  permanent.  By  the  strength  of  his 
convictions  he  accomplished  his  great  work  for  Chris- 
tianity and  the  world,  which  the  least  alloy  of  doubt 
in  his  own  mind  would  have  made  him  incapable  of 
doing.     Every  strong  believer  since  his  day  has  gone 


THE   BIBLE  AND   INSPIEATION.  103 

to  him  for  support;  and  all  subsequent  orthodox 
theology  has  planted  itself  on  the  theology  of  this 
Apostle.  His  doctrine,  then,  must  be  very  far  in- 
deed from  scepticism. 

The  only  explanation  of  his  statements  which 
seems  consistent  and  sufficient  is  this :  truth  is  abso- 
lute, real,  eternal ;  but  our  knowledge  of  it  is  incom- 
plete and  partial.  Every  intellectual  statement  is  an 
approximation ;  every  verbal  proposition  an  attempt. 
There  is  such  a  thing  as  truth,  and  we  can  see  it ;  but 
when  we  come  to  put  what  we  see  into  words,  error 
necessarily  comes  in.  We  are  like  a  portrait-painter 
attempting  a  Hkeness.  The  face  at  which  he  looks  is 
truth,  real  and  certain.  The  image  of  the  face  in  his 
mind  is  abeady  somewhat  confused  and  indistinct. 
The  portrait  which  he  makes  from  that  image  is  still 
more  imperfect.  There  might  be  twenty  different 
portraits  made  of  the  same  face.  Every  portrait 
might  have  some  truth,  some  resemblance ;  but  none 
would  be  perfectly  true.  Some  would  be  much  more 
true  than  the  rest,  and  yet  the  best  portrait  among 
them  would  be,  in  some  particulars,  inferior  to  each 
of  the  others.  All  of  them  taken  together  would 
give  a  better  idea  of  the  person  represented  than  any 
single  one  by  itseE  And  so  it  is  with  the  creeds  of 
Christendom.    Each  one  is  a  portrait  of  the  mind 


104  COMMON-SENSE  IN  RELIGION. 

of  Christ,  some  better,  some  worse.  But  the  most 
erroneous  creed  may  contain  some  Christian  truth 
which  is  wanting  in  the  most  orthodox  of  them ;  and 
all  of  them  are  destined  to  be  superseded  in  that  day 
when  we  shall  see  Christ  face  to  face. 

"  We  know  in  part."  All  our  knowledge  of  our- 
selves, of  others,  of  the  world,  is  partial,  and  God 
meant  that  it  should  be  so.  We  cannot  expect  to 
have  it  otherwise.  In  opinions  we  must  be  contented 
with  probabilities,  and  learn  to  dispense  with  cer- 
tainty. We  can  have  certainty  for  ourselves,  but  only 
for  ourselves.  Infallibility  is  inward,  in  our  expe- 
rience, not  outward,  in  our  statement.  There  is  no 
outward  infallibility  to  be  found  anywhere.  No 
Church  is  infallible,  no  creed  is  infallible,  no  book  is 
infaUible.  JN'o  outward  support  is  permanent.  All 
certainty  is  within,  in  the  depths  of  our  own  life. 
Certainty  comes  to  us  by  living  experience ;  that  is, 
by  repeated  acts  of  life.  By  repeated  acts  of  thought 
and'  feeling  we  become  certain  of  our  own  existence ; 
by  repeated  acts  of  perception,  we  become  certain  of 
the  existence  of  the  outward  world ;  by  repeated  acts 
of  prayer,  penitence,  submission,  trust,  we  become 
certain  of  the  existence  of  God ;  by  repeated  acts  of 
obedience  to  the  law  of  Christ,  and  of  faith  in  the 
promises  of  Christ,  we  become  certain  of  the  reality 
of  Christianity. 


THE   BIBLE  AND   INSPIEATION.  105 

It  is  natural,  therefore,  it  is  right,  to  long  for  cer- 
tainty. We  all  desire  to  feel  the  ground  firm  under 
our  feet.  We  shrink  from  doubt,  from  hesitation, 
from  change.  But  we  mistake  in  supposing  that  we 
can  find  certainty  in  any  outward  standard.  He  only 
can  say,  "  I  know  in  whom  I  have  believed,"  who  has 
lived  by  faith.  He  only  shall  know  of  the  doctrine 
who  shall  do  the  will  of  God.  "  The  world  cannot 
receive  the  spirit  of  truth,"  said  Jesus,  "because  it 
seeth  him  not,  neither  knoweth  him;  but  ye  know 
him,  for  he  dwelleth  with  you,  and  shall  be  in  you." 
"  Hereby,"  says  John,  "  we  do  know  that  we  know 
him,  if  we  keep  his  commandments."  And  again, 
the  Apostle  ^  assures  us  that  knowledge  comes  from 
love,  and  not  love  from  knowledge.  "  Let  us  love," 
says  he,  "  in  deed  and  in  truth,  and  hereby  we  know 
that  we  are  of  the  truth."  "  Every  one  that  loveth 
is  born  of  God,  and  knoweth  God.  He  that  loveth 
not  knoweth  not  God."  And,  finally,  he  teaches 
that  the  true  evidence  on  which  we  may  rely  is 
inward.  "He  that  believeth  on  the  Son  of  God 
hath  the  witness  in  himseK." 

We  do  know,  —  we  do  know  something.  There  is 
such  a  thing  as  certainty;  we  are  not  always  nor 
altogether  afloat ;  we  are  not  at  sea  without  an  an- 
chor, drifting  uncertainly  we  know  not  whence,  to  we 

5* 


106  COMMON-SENSE  IN   RELIGION. 

know  not  where.  The  Apostle  Paul  does  not  contra- 
dict himself  and  the  rest  of  the  Scriptures  by  teach- 
ing that  there  is  no  such  thing  as  certain  knowledge. 
He  avoids  scepticism  on  the  one  hand,  and  dogma- 
tism on  the  other  hand,  by  teaching  that  we  know 
something,  but  that  that  something  is  imperfectly 
known.  The  substance  of  our  knowledge  will  re- 
main; its  form  will  pass  away. 


v.- 

THE  TRUE  MEANING  OF  EVANGELICAL 
CHRISTIANITY. 


THE   TRUE    MEANING   OF   EVANGELICAL 
CHRISTIANITY. 

This  word  "evangelical"  is  used  in  a  technical 
sense  by  many  persons.  It  is  intended  by  them  to 
designate  a  certain  class  of  Christians  and  Christian 
churches,  and  to  distinguish  them  from  another  class. 
Thus,  at  the  communion  service  we  sometimes  hear 
an  invitation  given  to  all  members  of  evangelical 
churches,  others  beiQg  excluded.  So  the  Young 
Men's  Christian  Association  admits  to  full  standing 
as  members  only  those  who  belong  to  evangelical 
churches.  Used  in  this  sense,  the  word  is  sufficiently 
intelligible.  It  is  meant  to  include  those  who  be- 
lieve in  what  are  commonly  called  Orthodox  doc- 
trines, and  to  exclude  those  who  disbelieve  them. 
Orthodox  doctrines  are  understood  to  be  the  doctrines 
of  the  Trinity,  Total  Depravity,  the  Vicarious  Atone- 
ment, Supernatural  Conversion,  Everlasting  Punish- 
ment, and  the  Infallible  Authority  of  the  Scriptures. 
Those  churches  and  Christians  who  reject  any  of  these 
are  not  evangelical.     Thus  Unitarians  are  excluded. 


110  COMMON-SENSE  IN  RELIGION. 

because  they  reject  the  Trinity ;  Universalists,  be- 
cause they  reject  Everlasting  Punishment;  and 
Eoman  Catholics,  the  New  Church,  and  Quakers, 
because  they  deny  the  Infallible  Authority  of  the 
Scriptures,  substituting  the  authority  of  the  Church, 
the  Inner  Light,  or  that  of  Swedenborg. 

This  is  the  technical  sense  in  which  the  word  is 
used;  and  no  doubt  every  one  has  a  right  to  call 
himself  by  any  name  he  wiU,  provided  that  in  doing 
so  he  does  not  deprive  others  of  a  name  they  have 
also  a  right  to  possess. 

Thus,  the  Swedenborgians  have  a  perfect  right 
to  call  themselves  the  New  Church ;  but  when  the 
Eoman  Catholics  or  Episcopalians  call  themselves 
"  The  Church,"  they  are  not  polite ;  for  they  imply 
that  no  one  but  themselves  can  belong  to  the  Church 
of  Christ.  The  names  Episcopalian,  Baptist,  Meth- 
odist, are  distinctive,  honest,  and  not  arrogant.  But 
I  doubt  whether  the  same  can  be  said  of  the  word 
"evangelical,"  when  used  in  this  exclusive  sense. 
Let  us  consider  its  meaning  and  see. 

The  word  "  evangelical "  is  not  found  in  the  New 
Testament.  No  system  of  doctrine  and  no  church 
is  there  spoken  of  as  being  evangelical.  The  word 
"  evangelist "  occurs  three  times,  in  each  case  mean- 
ing a  preacher  of  the  gospel.    We  speak  of  the  "  Four 


EVANGELICAL  CHRISTIANlligrvTr.  Ill  ' 

Evangelists,"  meaning  the  writers  of  the  "  Four  Gos-       -: '  k 
pels."     But  no  such  term  is  applied  in  the  I^ew  Tes- -    -•    -' 
lament  itself  to  Matthew,  Mark,  Luke,  and  John ; 
nor  are  their  writings  anywhere  called  gospels.     This 
term  was  not  so  applied  till  they  were  a  hundred 
years  old. 

The  words  "  gospel "  and  "  evangelical "  mean  the 
same  thing.  They  both  mean  "good  news."  One 
is  the  Greek  form,  the  other  the  Saxon.  The  word 
"evangelical"  comes  from  the  Greek  words  eu, 
good,  and  ayyekov,  a  messenger.  The  word  "gos- 
pel "  is  from  the  Saxon  "  godspell,"  or  a  good  story. 
It  means  a  piece  of  good  news. 

l!^ow  I  do  not  object  to  our  Orthodox  friends  for 
taking  this  name  "evangelical"  to  themselves  as  a 
technical  name.  I  know  that  it  is  hard  to  find  a 
name  when  we  want  one.  Those  who  reject  Ortho- 
doxy have  their  difficulties  also.  They  call  their 
system  sometimes  "  Eational  Christianity,"  and  some- 
times "  Liberal  Christianity "  ;  but  perhaps  these 
words  are  a  little  arrogant  too.  I  do  not  like  them ; 
for  I  know  that  many  Orthodox  Christians  are  just 
as  liberal  and  just  as  rational  as  any  other  Christians 
can  be.  It  is  not  the  name  which  is  important,  but 
the  thing.  What  I  wish  to  ask  is,  "Whether  the 
system  called  Orthodoxy  is  really  more  evangelical 


112  COMMON-SENSE  IN   RELIGION. 

than  its  opposite  ?  Is  it  better  news  ?  Is  it  more 
joyful,  peaceful,  and  glad  than  any  other  faith,  or 
is  it  not  ? "     That  is  the  question. 

No  doubt  Christianity,  as  preached  at  first,  was  not 
only  called  a  gospel,  but  was  a  gospel.  It  was  good 
news,  —  taught  as  such,  received  as  such,  and,  like 
other  good  news,  producing  great  joy  and  peace  in 
believing.  It  created  a  mighty  hope.  It  enabled  the 
early  Christians  to  bear  persecution  and  death  pa- 
tiently. It  lifted  them  above  all  fear.  It  was  "  glad 
tidings  to  all  people."  It  was  "  salvation,"  or  safety. 
It  was  proclaimed  by  the  angels  as  good-will  and 
peace  to  men.  It  was  announced  by  Jesus  and  by 
John  as  the  kingdom  of  heaven  come  down  upon 
earth. 

Surely,  though  one  does  not  care  about  the  word 
"  evangelical,"  and  may  be  perfectly  willing  that  this 
shall  be  monopolized  by  those  who  hold  certain  views, 
it  is  only  natural  to  care  somewhat  about  the  thing. 
One  would  be  very  sorry  to  know  that  he  believes 
and  teaches  that  which  is  not  glad  tidings  nor  good 
news.  For,  if  it  is  not,  we  must  be  wrong,  and  have 
wandered  from  original  Christianity.  Is  there,  then, 
any  reason  for  saying  that  the  system  called  ortho- 
doxy is  better  news  than  the  opposite  system  ? 

Suppose  that  we  have  never  heard  the  doctrines 


EVANGELICAL  CHRISTIANITY.  113 

of  Orthodox  or  of  Liberal  Christianity,  and  now  hear 
them  preached  for  the  first  time.  "VVe  are,  let  us 
suppose,  intelligent  and  educated  heathen,  living  in 
China  or  Japan,  and  there  arrive  two  ministers,  one 
an  Orthodox  man,  the  other  a  Liberal  Christian  or  a 
Broad  Churchman.  The  Orthodox  man  begins  by  tell- 
ing us  that  we  are  sinners,  and  radically  corrupt  and 
evil,  so  as  to  be  justly  exposed  to  the  wrath  of  God 
and  future  punishment.  I  will  not  insist  on  total 
depravity,  because  that  is  not  now  asserted  by  all 
Orthodox  men.  But,  no  doubt,  the  first  article  of 
their  faith  is  this  doctrine  of  human  depravity. 

Now,  this  might  turn  out  to  be  true,  but  I  do  not 
think  I  should  consider  it  good  news.  I  should  say, 
"  I  never  supposed  myself  to  be  very  good ;  I  knew 
I  was  often  sinful " ;  but  when  I  am  told  that  there 
is  nothing  good  in  me,  and  that  I  am  so  bad  that 
God  is  justly  angry  with  me,  and  that  I  deserve  his 
wrath,  "  It  is  news,"  I  say, "  but  it  is  not  certainly 
good  news." 

"!N'o,"  says  my  preacher,  "this  is  not  the  good 
news ;  that  is  to  come.  The  good  news  is,  that  you 
can  be  saved  from  this  sin  and  its  consequences. 
God  has  come  down  as  a  man,  and  was  born  as  a 
child,  and  was  killed,  and  rose  again,  and  was  pun- 
ished in  your  place,  making  a  proper  sacrifice  and 


114  COMMON-SENSE  IN   EELIGION. 

atonement  to  his  own  justice,  and  so  now  you  can  be 
forgiven." 

"Well,"  the  Chinaman  might  reply,  "that  is  good 
news  so  far  as  this,  that  you  first  tell  me  I  am  in 
great  danger,  and  then  that  I  am  not.  First,  you  teU 
me  I  am  a  great  sinner,  and  that  God  hates  me ;  and 
now  you  say  that  he  has  done  something  to  take 
away  my  sin,  and  so  I  am  just  where  I  was  before 
you  came.  I  should  say  that  this  is  neither  good 
news  nor  bad  news.     One  part  balances  the  other." 

"  Not  so,"  says  our  preacher ;  "  there  is  an  infinite 
happiness  offered  you,  better  than  you  can  think 
or  dream,  but  on  certain  conditions.  You  must  re- 
pent and  believe.  You  must  believe  these  doctrines 
and  repent  of  your  sins,  and  you  will  be  saved; 
otherwise  you  will  go  to  everlasting  torment." 

"  But,"  says  the  heathen,  "  this  is  not  good  news  at 
all ;  this  is  very  bad  news.  For,  suppose  my  mind  is 
so  made  that  I  cannot  believe  your  doctrines,  and  my 
heart  so  made  that  I  cannot  love  this  God  who  threat- 
ens to  torment  me  forever,  what  am  I  to  do  then  ? 
This  is  bad  news,  and  no  glad  tidings  at  all  to  me." 

Now,  however  Orthodoxy  may  be  mitigated,  it  must, 
no  doubt,  hold  to  these  main  points,  or  cease  to  be 
Orthodoxy ;  that  man  by  nature  is  so  sinful  as  to  de- 
serve and  receive  everlasting  punishment,  unless  he 


EVANGELICAL   CHEISTIANITY.  115 

is  supernaturaUy  converted  by  Divine  grace,  and  not 
by  any  work  or  merit  of  his  own.  And  I  think  it 
doubtful  whether  this  can  be  called  a  piece  of  good 
news. 

I  am,  let  us  imagine,  in  apparent  good  health.  I 
am  not  aware  of  any  serious  disease.  But  a  learned 
physician  calls  me  aside  and  says  to  me,  "  Sir,  I  per- 
ceive by  infallible  symptoms  that  you  have  a  deadly 
malady.  You  will  die  in  three  or -four  weeks  unless 
you  take  a  certain  remedy.  I  have  this  remedy,  and 
perhaps  I  will  give  it  to  you.  But  you  can  do  noth- 
ing yourseK  to  be  cured." 

I  do  not  think  that  on  hearing  this  I  should 
go  back  to  my  friends  and  say,  "  I  have  heard  a  piece 
of  good  news  which  fills  me  with  delight!"  The 
news  might  be  true,  but  would  not  be  very  exhila- 
rating. 

I  know  very  well  that,  according  to  Orthodoxy, 
salvation  is  freely  offered  to  all.  But  then  it  is  also 
certain  that  in  order  to  be  saved  we  must  repent,  we 
must  be  converted,  we  must  be  bom  again ;  and  it  is 
certain  that  these  are  described  as  mysterious  pro- 
cesses, which  we  are  unable  to  accomplish,  except  by 
some  special  Divine  influence.  The  danger  is  repre- 
sented as  real  and  certain,  but  the  mode  of  rescue 
mysterious,  and  not  in  our  own  power.     This  is  why 


116  COMMON-SENSE  IN   RELIGION. 

I  think  that  Orthodoxy,  in  its  past  and  present  form, 
is  not  really  a  gospel  of  good  news,  and  therefore 
not  really  evangelical.  The  Koman  Catholic  Church 
has  an  advantage  over  Protestant  Orthodoxy  in  this 
respect.  Describing  the  danger  in  the  same  way,  it 
points  out  a  plain,  simple,  and  practical  way  of  es- 
cape. An  Orthodox  Protestant  can  never  tell  exactly 
what  to  do,  in  order  to  be  converted  and  saved.  But 
a  Roman  Catholic-  can.  All  he  has  to  do  is  to  re- 
ceive the  sacraments.  He  must  be  baptized,  and  so 
become  a  child  of  God.  When  he  commits  sin,  he 
must  go  to  confession  and  be  absolved.  Once  a  year 
he  must  partake  the  sacrament.  Then  if  he  dies  at 
any  time  he  is  sure  to  escape  hell,  and,  after  spend- 
ing some  time  in  purgatory,  sure  to  go  to  heaven. 
This,  if  believed,  might  I  think  be  called,  perhaps, 
in  a  certain  sense,  good  news. 

But,  after  all,  it  is  not  very  comforting  or  exhila- 
rating to  be  told  that  our  Heavenly  Father  is  a  being 
who  has  made  some  of  his  children  with  the  inten- 
tion of  punishing  them  to  all  eternity  in  terrific 
torments.  Even  if  we  can  escape,  it  is  not  good  news 
to  hear  of  the  danger  and  certain  destruction  of  mul- 
titudes of  our  feUow-creatures.  "When  we  heard,  the 
other  day,  of  the  destruction  of  a  steamer  in  the 
Sound,  and  the  loss  of  so  many  passengers,  did  it  seem 


EVANGELICAL   CHRISTIANITY.  117 

good  news  because  we  were  safe  ?  Suppose  we  had 
been  on  the  wreck,  and  had  been  taken  into  a  boat  and 
brought  to  land,  while  we  saw  around  men  and  women 
and  children  struggling  in  vain  for  life ;  should  we 
have  called  out  joyfully,  "  Good  news !  good  news  !  / 
am  safe  "  ? 

The  glad  tidings  of  Christianity,  according  to  Or- 
thodoxy, are,  that  millions  and  millions  of  our  fellow- 
creatures  have  gone  down  already  into  the  sufferings 
of  hell,  without  hope  of  any  rescue,  and  that  millions 
more  are  to  follow  them,  while  we  and  some  others 
in  Christian  lands  may  be  saved.  Is  that  the  good 
news  which  Jesus  came  to  bring  ?  Is  this  the  cause 
of  that  angelic  joy  which  overflowed  the  barriers 
which  divide  heaven  from  earth,  and  caused  the  song 
of  the  heavenly  host  to  be  heard  by  the  simple  shep- 
herds on  the  plains  of  Bethlehem  ?  I  cannot  think  so. 
The  good  news  must  be  something  of  a  different  kind. 

We  will  next  suppose  that  some  preacher  of  the 
Broad  Church  comes  to. the  Buddhists.  What  has 
he  to  tell  the  Chinese  about  his  religion  ? 

He  tells  them,  first,  the  story  of  the  Prodigal  Son, 
to  show  them  that  sin  consists  in  going  away  from 
God  and  his  law,  and  indulging  one's  self  in  wilful 
and  false  pleasures.  Then  he  teaches  that  suffering 
is  sent  to  make  us  repent  and  return ;  that  when  we 


118  COMMON-SENSE  IN  RELIGION. 

repent  and  return,  God  is  our  Father,  very  glad  to 
have  us  back  again.  He  says  that  God  is  always 
the  same ;  that  he  does  not  need  any  sacrifice  or 
atonement ;  that  hell  is  here,  and  heaven  is  here ; 
that  sin  is  itself  hell,  and  that  love  and  purity  are 
lieaven. 

Now,  whether  this  view  of  God  be  true  or  not 
true,  it  is  at  least  "good  news." 

He  tells  them,  next,  the  story  of  the  Good  Samari- 
tan, to  show  that  all  men  are  neighbors  and  brothers  ; 
that  God  loves  all  his  children  alike,  and  that  they 
also  must  love  each  other.  He  tells  them  that  the 
Jew  is  no  dearer  in  the  sight  of  God  than  the  French- 
man or  the  Indian  is,  and  that  the  Christian  is  no 
more  a  favorite  than  the  Buddhist  or  Mohammedan. 
That  therefore  all  must  help  each  other,  and  that  so 
they  will  best  obey  God.  He  tells  them,  again,  that 
the  way  to  God  and  heaven  is  to  do  what  we  can,  and 
to  trust  to  him  for  power  to  do  more ;  that  he  who 
accepts  all  the  truth  he  sees,  will  see  more ;  that  he 
who  does  aU  the  duties  he  is  able  to  do,  will  have 
power  to  do  more.  He  tells  them  that  no  man  is  to 
blame  for  his  unbelief,  unless  it  is  wilful,  and  that 
there  is  no  merit  in  belief,  unless  it  implies  a  love 
for  truth  and  patient  pursuit  of  it.  He  says  that 
God  requires  of  us  no  great  things,  but  to  be  faithful 


EVANGELICAL   CHRISTIANITY.  119 

in  the  little  things  of  daily  life.  He  assures  them 
that  if  they  do  what  they  can,  they  will  be  safe  and 
happy  here  and  hereafter. 

Finally,  he  tells  them  that  religion  is  not  a  thing 
by  itself,  but  a  good  spirit,  —  a  spirit  of  truth  and  of 
love,  filling  all  of  life.  He  says  that  religion  does  not 
consist  in  prayers  and  sacraments  any  more  than  in 
daily  work ;  that  it  belongs  to  Monday  and  Tuesday 
as  well  as  to  Sunday ;  to  the  shop  and  street  as  well 
as  to  the  kitchen.  He  tells  them  that  God  reveals 
himself  in  nature  and  science  no  less  than  by  proph- 
ets and  sacred  books ;  that  he  reveals  himself  in  every 
good  soul,  in  the  good  and  kind  hearts  about  us,  in 
our  father's  and  mother's  love,  no  less  than  in  the 
words  of  Jeremiah  and  Confucius.  He  says  that 
"  all  scripture  is  given  by  inspiration,"  the  scriptures 
of  the  East  and  West,  all  that  elevates  man;  that 
the  scriptures  of  the  Hindoos  and  Persians  were  sent 
by  God,  so  far  as  they  contain  Divine  truth  ;  and  that 
Christianity  is  better  than  other  religions,  because  it 
is  larger  and  deeper,  less  exclusive,  more  generous 
and  hospitable  to  all  truth. 

Then  our  evangelist  goes  on  to  say  that  all  life 
is  advancing ;  that  life  does  not  die  ;  that  matter 
dies  off  it ;  that  Clirist  rose  out  of  this  world  into  a 
higher,  out  of  this  body  into  a  nobler,  and  that  we 


120  COMMON-SENSE  IN  RELIGION. 

shall  follow  him.  He  says  there  is  no  real  separa- 
tion between  these  two  worlds  ;  that  the  next  begins 
before  this  one  ends ;  that  death  is  not  the  end,  but 
the  beginning ;  not  going  down  into  the  tomb,  but 
up  into  a  fuller  and  richer  existence.  He  declares 
the  true  resurrection  to  be  going  up  ;  to  be  ascent  to 
a  better  world,  not  a  return  to  this  one. 

Of  these  two  evangels  I  now  ask  which  is  the 
most  evangelical  ?  Which  is  most  a  gospel,  most 
truly  good  news  ?  Is  that  good  news  which  leaves  in 
the  universe  the  permanent  horror  of  an  everlasting 
hell  side  by  side  with  a  heaven,  distributing  and 
dividing  fathers  and  mothers,  brothers  and  sisters, 
friends  and  lovers  between  the  two  ?  Is  it  glad  ti- 
dings to  be  told  that  God,  through  all  eternity,  will 
never  reign  over  more  than  one  part  of  his  universe, 
and  that  the  Devil  will  be  king  forever  over  the 
other  ?  Is  it  not  better  news  to  learn  that  the  black 
spots  on  creation  —  evil,  suffering,  sin,  death  —  are 
to  be  made  at  last  instruments  of  good ;  that  every 
knee  shall  at  last  bow  to  goodness,  and  every  tongue 
confess  that  Jesus  is  Lord,  to  the  glory  of  God  the 
Father  ? 

Now,  if  those  who  believe  in  a  narrow  Christian- 
ity, limited  to  a  part  of  God's  creatures  and  creation, 
choose  to  call  it  an  evangelical  system,  and  a  gospel 


EVANGELICAL   CHRISTIANITY.  121 

of  good  news,  I  do  not  object.  Let  them  keep  the 
name. 

But  let  those  who  receive  Christianity  in  another 
and  higher  sense  show  this  faith  in  the  spirit  and 
temper  of  their  daily  life.  They  live  in  a  world 
full  of  a  Divine  love,  where  sorrows  and  trials  are 
the  shadows  which  shall  pass  away,  and  bring  good 
in  their  place.  Let  them  be  glad  and  grateful.  Let 
them  not  be  troubled  by  little  disappointments,  or 
perplexed  by  temporary  difficulties,  or  anxious  about 
this  life  or  the  other.  Let  them  trust  in  God  and 
his  perpetual  providence.  Let  them  do  with  their 
might  what  their  hands  find  to  do  of  beautiful  things 
and  good. 

It  may  be  said  that  this  is  a  system  of  optimism, 
and  that  it  makes  light  of  evil  and  sin.  No  doubt 
true  Christianity  is  optimism ;  for  it  teaches  that  all 
things  work  for  good  to  those  who  love  God;  that 
God  is  love,  and  dwells  in  love  ;  and  that  this  love  is 
to  conquer  all  evil,  so  that  God,  who  is  love,  shall  be 
all  in  all.  But  it  does  not  deny  the  reality  of  pres- 
ent evil  or  sin,  as  now  existing  in  the  world.  This 
evil  we  know.  It  is  simply  a  matter  of  fact.  Evil 
exists,  and  cannot  be  denied.  The  only  question  is. 
Does  it  exist  for  a  good  end  or  for  a  bad  end  ?  Is  it 
all  to  end  in  good,  or  is  it  to  go  on  forever  as  evil  ? 

6 


122  COMMON-SENSE   IN   RELIGION. 

Is  it,  in  its  nature,  infinite  or  finite,  limited  or  unlim- 
ited ?  Orthodoxy  asserts  the  last ;  Liberal  Christian- 
ity the  other.  The  Broad  Church  says,  "  Evil  exists, 
but  it  exists  for  the  sake  of  -good,  and  is  to  end  in 
good.  It  exists  that  we  may  resist  it  and  fight  against 
it,  and  so  develop  energy  and  virtue.  It  exists  that 
we  may  be  able  to  choose  between  evil  and  good,  and 
so  be  free  beings."  Since  the  difference  between  the 
finite  and  the  infinite  is  an  infinite  difference,  it  fol- 
lows that  the  Orthodox  view  of  evil  and  the  opposite 
differ  by  an  absolutely  infinite  amount. 

One  of  the  views  we  have  thus  contrasted  makes 
of  life  merely  a  scene  of  probation.  "We  are  here  on 
trial,  and  at  death  the  sentence  is  to  be  pronounced. 
The  other  makes  of  life,  not  probation,  but  education. 
We  are  here  to  be  educated  by  all  our  experience, 
to  be  developed  into  something  higher.  We  are  to 
grow  up  in  all  things,  and  to  become  more  and  more 
like  Jesus  Christ.  If  we  adopt  this  generous  theory, 
let  us  be  diligent  to  make  our  calling  and  election 
sure. 


VI. 

THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  SIN, 


VI 

THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  SIN. 

Eeligious  preachers  and  writers  very  generally 
consider  it  their  duty  to  represent  sinfulness  in  as 
black  colors  as  possible.  They  imagine  that  they 
cannot  err  in  that  direction.  They  suppose  men  so 
ready  to  excuse  themselves,  and  to  think  well  of 
themselves,  that  there  is  no  danger  of  their  thinking 
too  badly  of  themselves.  The  one  great  sin  of  man 
they  suppose  to  be  spiritual  pride ;  the  one  great  vir- 
tue, humility.  Therefore  they  teach  natural  and  total 
depravity ;  that  all  men'are  born  with  sinful  natures, 
and  that  all  are  bom  totally  depraved.  You  must 
not  allow  men  to  suppose  they  have  anything  good 
in  them  ;  if  they  do,  they  will  suppose  they  are  about 
good  enough.  The  great  Orthodox  preachers  have 
been  those  who  gave  the  most  awful  pictures  of  hu- 
man depravity;  who  have  tried  to  convince  little 
children  that  they  hated  God,  that  they  deserved 
nothing  from  him  but  hell,  and  that,  while  God  has 
all  claim  upon  us,  we  have  none  on  him.  These 
ideas  are  presumed  to  be  eminently  religious  ideas ; 


126  COMMON-SENSE  IN  RELIGION. 

the  more  we  think  in  this  way,  the  more  pious  and 
humble  we  are  considered  to  be. 

Let  us  examine  these  beliefs  by  common-sense  and 
by  Scripture;  and  first,  let  us  test  this  notion,  that 
while  God  has  all  claims  on  us,  we  have  none  on  him. 

Does  such  an  opinion  as  this  tend  to  glorify  God  ? 
I  think  not.  Would  a  father  consider  it  honorable  to 
tell  his  children  that  they  had  no  claims  upon  him 
for  support,  for  advice,  protection,  education,  love? 
Should  we  honor  an  earthly  parent  more  highly  for 
declaring  that  he  owed  nothing  to  his  children,  that 
he  considered  himself  under  no  responsibilities  to 
them  ?  Assume  that  he  was  vastly  wiser  and  better 
and  more  powerful  than  they ;  would  that  make  him 
less  responsible,  or  more  so  ?  I  think  that  we  honor 
those  parents  the  most  who  have  taught  their  children 
to  feel  that  they  have  a  right  to  come  to  them  always 
for  help,  sympathy,  counsel.  "We  honor  the  father 
who  teaches  his  children  that  everything  he  does 
he  does  for  them,  that  all  he  has  he  has  for  them. 
Let  every  other  door  be  closed  to  them,  liis  is  open ; 
let  all  other  men  reject  them,  he  gladly  receives  them. 
No  matter  what  their  faults  and  sins  are,  he  still  feels 
bound  to  care  for  them  and  never  to  abandon  them. 
God  calls  himself  Father,  teaches  us  to  say  to  him 
every   day,  "Our   Father";    and  so   he    teaches   us 


THE   TRUTH  ABOUT   SIN.  127 

that  we  have  claims  on  him  which  he  cannot  and 
will  not  disallow. 

If  there  be  one  law  of  ethics  which  no  one  can 
question,  it  is  that  all  power  implies  responsibility. 
Eesponsibility  for  the  use  of  power  is  in  exact  pro- 
portion to  the  degree  of  power.  But  the  power  of 
God  is  infinite,  therefore  his  responsibility  is  infinite. 
The  fact  that  we  are  weak  and  ignorant  does  not 
give  us  less  claim  on  him,  but  more. 

When  we  call  God  righteous,  just,  and  holy,  we 
speak  of  him  as  recognizing  and  fulfilling  moral  obli- 
gations, otherwise  the  w^ords  have  no  meaning.  Our 
only  conception  of  God  as  a  moral  being,  as  more 
than  an  arbitrary  power,  comes  from  these  concep- 
tions of  right  and  truth  which  he  has  put  into  our 
souls.  Do  not  take  away  these  grand  and  holy 
attributes  from  the  Almighty  from  a  foolish  notion 
that  you  make  him  more  free  and  powerful  thereby. 
The  man  who  emancipates  himself  from  moral  re- 
straint does  not  become  more  free,  for  he  becomes 
less  human.  God  also,  when  set  above  right  and 
justice,  becomes  less  divine.  Nor  does  the  Scripture 
take  this  view.  The  Bible  everywhere  represents 
God  as  under  moral  obligations  to  his  creatures. 
One  text  says  that  "if  we  confess  our  sins,  God 
u  faitliful  and  just  to  forgive  us  our  sins."     Faith- 


128  COMMON-SENSE  IN   KELIGION. 

ful,  that  is,  true  to  his  promises,  bound  by  his  en- 
gagements; just,  that  is,  required  to  forgive  us  by 
the  principles  of  eternal  right,  which  are  a  part  of 
his  own  nature.  He  does  not  forgive  the  peni- 
tent sinner  merely  out  of  compassion,  only  from 
mercy,  but  also  because  of  his  justice.  God  is  mer- 
ciful, and  loves  to  forgive ;  but  if  he  did  not  for- 
give us  when  we  repent,  from  his  mercy,  he  would 
from  his  fidelity  to  his  own  promises.  If  he  did  not 
forgive  us  from  his  faithfulness  or  mercy,  then  he 
would  forgive  us  from  his  justice.  Such  is  the  dec- 
laration of  the  Apostle.  "  Let  God  be  true,  though 
every  man  be  a  liar."  By  three  immutable  things 
the  penitent  sinner  obtains  pardon :  from  the  mercy 
of  God,  the  truth  of  God,  and  the  justice  of  God. 
Moreover,  the  Bible  represents  the  Deity  not  only 
as  bound  by  his  own  nature  to  his  creatures,  but  also 
as  loving  to  bind  himself  by  special  engagements. 
The  law  of  Moses  and  the  gospel  of  Jesus  are  repre- 
sented, both,  as  covenants.  One  is  the  old  covenant, 
the  other  the  new  covenant.  IN'ow  a  covenant  is 
what  we  call  a  contract,  and  expresses  the  idea  of 
reciprocal  obligation.  Both  parties  are  bound  by  a 
contract.  And  these  two  contracts  correspond  to 
something  planted  in  human  nature.  The  old  con- 
tract is,  that   if  a  man  obeys  God  he   is  to  be  re- 


THE  TRUTH   ABOUT   SIN.  129 

warded ;  if  he  disobeys,  lie  is  to  be  punished ;  if  he 
disobeys  and  repents,  he  shall  be  safe ;  if  he  disobeys 
and  perseveres,  he  shall  continue  to  suffer  the  conse- 
quences. The  new  contract,  the  new  covenant,  the 
gospel,  is,  that  if  one  will  trust  God,  God  will  be  his 
friend  and  help  him.  It  does  not  annul  the  old  one, 
but  completes  it,  fulfils  it.  God  wishes  us  to  believe 
and  feel  that  he  is  under  obligations  to  us ;  that  we 
are  bound  to  obey,  love,  and  trust  him  ;  that  faith  no 
less  than  obedience  is  our  duty ;  and  that  he  is  bound 
to  protect,  forgive,  help,  inspire,  and  save  us,  so  long 
as  we  continue  to  trust  in  him. 

But  what  does  common-sense  teach  of  the  evil  of 
sin  ?  It  teaches  us  that  sin  is  the  great  evil  of  life ; 
that  without  this,  aU  others  would  be  tolerable.  The 
sting  of  aU  suffering  is  sin. 

I  go  into  two  homes.  In  one  they  have  every- 
thing, and  possess  nothing.  There  is  a  spirit  of  dis- 
content .in  the  house.  They  envy  their  neighbors, 
they  are  jealous  that  they  do  not  receive  all  the  at- 
tention they  claim,  they  are  unhappy  because  they 
cannot  get  into  this  or  that  circle  of  society.  There 
is  no  family  affection,  no  peace,  no  mutual  concession 
and  good-will.  Each  demands  everything  and  con- 
cedes nothing.  The  spirit  is  wrong,  therefore  all  is 
wrong. 

6*  I 


130  COMMON-SENSE  IN  RELIGION. 

I  go  into  another  house.  They  have  nothing,  but 
they  possess  all  things.  They  are  poor,  they  hardly 
know  where  to  go  for  food  or  clothing ;  but  they  pos- 
sess a  sweet  content,  a  perfect  confidence  in  God,  an 
entire  and  constant  love  for  each  other.  Therefore 
the  evil  seems  not  to  be  evil.  Misery  is  robbed  of 
its  sting.  Patience,  with  eyes  of  heavenly  calm,  sits 
by  the  fireside ;  and  serene,  happy  thoughts ;  glad, 
kindly  words ;  cheerful,  merry  talk,  defeat  the  as- 
sault of  pain  and  want.  The  soul  being  right,  all  is 
right.     The  soul  being  wrong,  all  is  wrong. 

The  great  evil  of  life  is  sin.  Among  the  poor,  it 
often  takes  the  form  of  intemperance  and  brutality ; 
among  the  rich,  of  coldness  of  heart,  civil  selfishness, 
polite  hardness,  and  indifference ;  in  short,  want  of 
heart.  One  had  rather  go  into  an  Irish  shanty,  where, 
amid  coarseness  and  vulgarity,  there  is  good-hearted- 
ness,  kindliness,  and  truth,  than  into  some  gilded 
saloons  which  freeze  us  with  stiff  decorum  and  the 
absence  of  all  love. 

One  of  the  greatest  calamities  of  these  last  years 
was  the  destruction  of  the  great  city  of  Chicago. 
The  event  in  history  most  comparable  to  it  is  the  fall 
of  Babylon.  "  In  one  hour  so  much  glory  perished  ! " 
Yet  there  was  no  special  sin  which  caused  it ;  so  all 
the  suffering  seemed  only  to  develop  strength,  noble 


THE   TEUTH  ABOUT   SIN.  131 

patience,  sweet  endurance.  The  suffering  called  out 
human  love  and  grand  cordial  sympathies.  It  showed 
that  behind  all  separation  of  States,  countries,  hostile 
nations,  beats  the  great  warm  heart  of  humanity.  JSTo 
amount  of  loss,  suffering,  pain,  can  be  a  real  misfor- 
tune so  long  as  there  is  no  sin  in  it. 

But  look,  on  the  other  hand,  at  the  terrible  evils 
which  come  from  rascality,  corruption,  villany  in 
public  life.  This  is  the  cloud  which  droops,  low- 
hung,  over  our  life.  Men  are  in  such  haste  to  be 
rich  that,  in  rushing  forward  to  this  goal,  they  throw 
aside,  as  retarding  burdens,  their  honesty,  their  self- 
respect,  their  good  reputation.  They  defile  with  mud 
the  names  of  their  fathers  and  those  of  their  chil- 
dren. Every  day  we  hear  of  some  one,  hitherto 
accounted  respectable,  who  has  been  guilty  of 
villany  in  the  hopes  of  making  money  speedily. 
Legitimate  business  has  turned  into  speculation. 
Merchants  have  become  gamblers.  The  great  mer- 
cantile profession,  so  honorable  in  the  past,  which  has 
conferred  such  benefits  on  the  world,  which  has  ad- 
vanced civilization,  spread  culture  and  knowledge, 
brought  nations  into  contact,  sent  missions  of  intel- 
ligence in  the  fleets  which  spot  with  white  sails 
remotest  oceans,  —  this  grand  old  profession  is  in 
danger  of  being  converted   into   a  mere  clique   of 


132  COMMON-SENSE  IN    RELIGION. 

speculators.      If  so,  it  will   be   stung  to    death   by- 
sin. 

Sin  is  something  very  real  and  positive.  I  com- 
plain of  the  old  theology,  that  it  has  substituted  a 
metaphysical  abstraction  in  place  of  the  real  evil 
"  Total  depravity "  sounds  very  badly,  but  there  is 
nothing  corresponding  to  it  in  actual  life.  All  expe- 
rience refutes  the  notion  of  total  depravity.  Every 
bad  man  has  some  good  in  him ;  every  good  man  has 
some  evil.  A  perfectly  sinless  man  is  "a  faultless 
monster  which  the  world  ne'er  saw."  A  perfectly 
sinful  man  is  another  monster  which  the  world  ne'er 
saw.  The  darkest  night  has  its  lights,  the  clearest 
day  its  shadows.  In  well- written  novels  the  hero  is 
never  a  perfect  saint,  but  a  man  of  generous,  noble 
purpose,  fighting  with  temptations  and  conquering 
them,  and  so  rising  above  himself  He  is  not  a  saint 
all  white,  nor  a  sinner  all  black ;  but  a  man,  with  a 
great  human  heart  and  pure  aspirations,  who  holds 
on  till  he  conquers  the  evil  in  himself  and  about 
himself. 

We  see  how  true  is  the  statement,  If  we  say 
we  have  no  sin  we  deceive  ourselves.  Few  people 
ever  say,  in  so  many  words,  that  they  have  no  sin. 
But  they  make  light  of  sin;  they  think  it  of  no 
consequence.     Jesus  judged  differently  when  he  de- 


THE  TRUTH  ABOUT   SIN.  133 

clared  it  better  to  cut  off  the  right  hand  and  pull 
out  the  right  eye  than  to  commit  one  real  sin. 

How  do  we  say  we  have  no  sin  ?  We  say  we  have 
no  sin,  when  we  confess  it  in  the  abstract  and  deny 
it  in  the  concrete.  A  man  rises  in  a  prayer-meeting, 
and  declares  himself  the  chief  of  sinners;  says  Ms 
heart  is  full  of  all  evil,  and  that  but  for  God's  mercy 
he  ought  to  go  to  helL  Yes;  but  if  another  man 
should  then  reply,  "  That  is  true !  You  are  about  tho 
meanest  fellow  I  ever  knew,"  he  would  probably  be 
angry.  He  did  not  mean  to  say  that ;  he  only  meant 
that  he  was  a  sinner  in  a  theological  sense ;  not  a  real 
rascal  by  any  means.  He  deceived  himself;  for  all 
the  time  that  he  was  calling  himself  the  chief  of  sin- 
ners, he  was  in  reality  thinking  that  he  had  no  sin. 
Genuine  humility  does  not  often  talk  about  its  sins. 
But  it  shows  its  sense  of  sin  by  tenderness  toward 
other  sinners.  Humility  and  true  penitence  alone  are 
able  really  to  forgive.  That  is  why  we  can  only  be 
forgiven  when  we  can  forgive  others.  A  sincere  man 
finds  in  his  own  heart  the  germs  of  all  the  evils 
"which  break  out  around  him  into  vice  and  crime. 
Hence  he  cannot  loudly  condemn,  though  he  greatly 
pities,  the  vicious  man  and  the  criminal.  He  knows 
that  the  outbreak  of  sin  into  crime  is  not  the  worst 
part  of  it.    This  disease  is  often  worse  before  it  comes 


134  COMMON-SENSE  IN   RELIGION. 

out  than  after.  The  sight  of  one's  own  inward  sin, 
incarnate  outwardly  in  crime,  often  appalls  the  soul 
and  leads  it  to  real  penitence.  The  men  in  jails  and 
state-prisons  are  not  the  worst  men  in  the  world. 
Those  who  ought  to  be  there,  but  have  cunning  enough 
to  keep  out,  are  often  worse  men. 

Every  one  ought  to  know  his  own  sinful  tendencies, 
his  besetting  sins,  his  peculiar  temptations.  All  the 
time  we  spend  in  excuses  and  justifications  is  lost 
time.  It  is  a  great  mistake  to  fancy  ourselves  strong 
when  we  are  weak.  Better  to  see  our  weakness,  and 
so  be  prepared  to  resist  temptation.  But,  on  the- 
other  hand,  exaggeration  is  of  no  use.  Every  one 
has  some  good  qualities,  and  it  is  best  to  know  them, 
so  as  to  make  use  of  them.  God  does  not  ask  us  to 
pretend  to  be  worse  than  we  are,  in  order  to  please 
him.  The  Apostle  says,  "  Do  not  think  of  yourselves 
more  highly  than  you  ought  to  think."  But  he  does 
not  say,  "  Think  of  yourselves  more  lowly  than  you 
ought  to  think."  Think  the  truth,  whatever  it  is. 
Job  was  requested  by  his  friends  to  say  he  was  a 
great  sinner,  in  order  to  pacify  God's  anger.  But  Job 
said,  "  "^0  !  I  am  not  a  great  sinner.  I  am  a  pretty 
good  man.  I  have  tried  to  do  right  always.  I  have 
been  eyes  to  the  blind  and  feet  to  the  lame.  If  a 
poor  man  got  into  difficulty,  I  tried  to  help  him.     I 


THE  TRUTH  ABOUT   SIN.  135 

was  rich,  but  that  is  no  sin.  I  used  my  riches  for 
good  purposes.  I  enjoyed  it  myself,  and  I  tried  to 
make  others  enjoy  it.  If  I  saw  a  scoundrel  oppressing 
some  helpless  man  or  woman,  I  came  to  the  rescue. 
What  is  the  use  of  saying  I  am  a  great  sinner,  when 
I  do  not  see  it  ?  Does  God  wish  me  to  tell  a  lie,  in 
order  to  please  him  ?  I  think  not.  I  think  he  likes 
the  truth."  So  Job  told  no  lie,  put  on  no  long  face; 
and  God  was  pleased  with  that,  and  said  he  liked  him 
better  than  he  did  his  advisers,  who  urged  him  to  tell 
falsehoods  to  pacify  the  Almighty. 

No  man  is  what  he  ought  to  be :  this  is  undenia- 
ble. And  because  we  are  not  what  we  ought  to  be, 
we  make  ourselves  and  others  miserable.  By  our  self- 
ishness, ill-temper,  want  of  love,  want  of  generosity, 
want  of  manliness  and  womanliness,  want  of  truth, 
want  of  courage,  we  bring  infinite  evils  on  ourselves 
and  others.  Men  do  wrong  tilings,  and  are  ashamed 
to  confess  them,  and  so  go  on  doing  more  and  more 
wrong  things  to  cover  up  the  first.  The  hill  of  sin  is 
so  steep,  that  if  you  begin  to  slide  down,  you  have  to 
keep  sliding ;  you  cannot  stop.  You  think  you  can- 
not, at  least;  but  you  can.  If  we  have  only  the 
courage  to  confess,  to  own  up  manfully,  we  can  be 
saved  and  forgiven. 

And  this  forgiveness  is  not  something  technical  or 


136  COMMON-SENSE   IN   RELIGION.  ' 

theological,  it  is  real.  It  is  not  a  future  forgiveness 
only,  but  a  present  satisfaction.  Wlien  we  confess 
our  sin,  and  are  ready  to  take  the  consequences  of  it, 
we  feel  at  once  an  inward  peace.  AVe  have  a  con- 
tentment which  comes  from  God,  and  is  the  sign  and 
evidence  of  his  forgiving  love.  We  are  relieved  from 
a  great  weight. 

Forgiveness  does  not  mean  the  taldng  away  of  all 
the  consequences  of  sin.  That  would  be  bad  for  us. 
It  is  best  to  bear  the  outwa,rd  consequences  of  our 
wrong-doing,  for  that  makes  us  realize  its  evil,  and 
will  prevent  us  from  falling  into  it  again.  Forgive- 
ness means  inward  peace,  contentment,  satisfaction. 
It  means  our  self-respect  come  back  again,  our  hope 
and  courage  restored.  It  means  that  the  inward  con- 
sequences of  sin  are  taken  away.  It  means,  above 
all,  the  assurance  that  God  has  become  our  friend 
once  more.  When  we  have  all  this,  we  may  well 
bear  patiently  the  outward  punishment  and  suffering 
which  are  the  necessary  consequences  of  wrong-doing. 
God  does  not  alter  his  laws  of  retribution  when  he 
forgives  us.  What  a  man  soweth,  that  shall  he  also 
reap.  When  an  intemperate  man  repents,  and  leaves 
off  drinking,  he  does  not  at  once  recover  his  health 
injured  by  past  excesses,  he  does  not  receive  back  his 
wasted  property,  he  does  not  regain  in  an  hour  his 


THE  TRUTH   ABOUT   SIN.  137 

lost  reputation  and  social  position.  •  No ;  but  he  has 
an  inward  satisfaction ;  he  is  satisfied  with  himself, 
filled  with  new  courage  and  hope. 

And  this  inward  forgiveness  comes  from  the  justice 
and  truth  of  God.  It  comes  from  the  regular  action 
of  his  laws.  He  has  made  us  so,  that  if  we  really- 
repent,  we  regain  our  inward  peace  and  strength. 
But  then  the  repentance  is  not  real,  unless  it  is  strong 
enough  to  show  itself  in  confession,  in  open,  honest 
confession  of  the  wrong  we  have  done.  Until  we  do 
this,  the  entire  peace  does  not  come.  It  must  be 
strong  enough  also  to  induce  us  to  make  full  atone- 
ment, to  make  good  the  wrong  as  far  as  we  can.  And 
also  it  must  prove  itseK  real  by  making  us  able  to 
forgive  others,  which  we  can  easily  do  when  we  really 
see  that  we  are  not  essentially  better  than  they,  but 
perhaps  worse. 

"  If  we  say  we  have  no  sin,  we  deceive  ourselves.'* 
We  may  not  have  committed  any  outward  crime,  any 
sin  of  open,  flagrant  sort ;  but  if  we  are  honest  with 
ourselves,  we  can  generally  find  the  roots  of  most 
such  sins  within  us.  If  we  have  not  committed  them, 
it  is  because  God  has  surrounded  us  with  restraints, 
shielded  us  from  temptation,  made  our  lives  serene 
and  safe,  fed  us  with  wise  counsels  from  childhood  up, 
educated  us  to  self-control  and  seK-direction.     Per- 


COMMON-SENSE  IN  RELIGION. 


haps  we  have  never  murdered  a  man.  But  if  we  have 
hated  a  man,  and  wished  him  out  of  our  way,  there 
was  the  little  seed  which,  under  suitable  climatic 
influences,  might  have  grown  into  murder.  We  have 
never  stolen  money,  nor  forged,  and  we  perhaps 
have  never  had  any  temptation  to  do  so.  But  if 
we  have  coveted  what  belonged  to  another,  if  we 
have  quietly  appropriated  another's  thought  without 
acknowledgment,  there  was  the  seed  of  theft,  which, 
if  we  had  been  born  in  a  cellar,  and  bred  in  the 
street,  might  easily  have  carried  us  to  the  state- 
prison.  What  right  have  I,  what  right  have  you,  to 
look  down  with  scorn  on  those  who  have  fallen  be- 
cause their  feet  were  placed  on  slippery  ice,  while 
ours  were  put  on  solid  rock  ?  Pity  them,  forgive 
them,  help  them,  do  not  judge  them,  unless  we  wish 
to  be  judged  ourselves  by  the  same  hard,  unforgiv- 
ing law. 

If  we  say  we  have  no  sin,  we  deceive  ourselves. 
If  we  say  we  are  totally  depraved,  we  also  deceive 
ourselves.  It  may  seem  to  us  to  be  very  humble  to 
say  that.  We  deceive  ourselves  ;  it  is  not  humility, 
but  falsehood,  which  apes  humility.  God  has  put 
into  us  a  great  deal  that  is  good.  He  has  given  us 
reason,  conscience,  heart,  freedom  to  choose  good, 
power  to  resist  evil.     When  he  has  done  aU  this  for 


THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  SIN.  139 

US,  to  pretend  that  he  has  made  us  totally  depraved, 
is  not  humility,  but  ingratitude  and  impiety.  The 
case  is  bad  enough  as  it  is ;  do  not  make  it  worse. 
Eepent  of  your  real  sins,  and  repent  practically,  by 
correcting  them,  and  then  God  will  send  into  your 
soul  his  forgiving  love  and  peace.  Eepentance  gpens 
the  door  of  the  heart,  inwardly,  toward  God,  and  lets 
in  all  his  sunshine.  The  pulsations  of  that  Divine 
love  pour  out  unceasingly,  and  rush  down  in  light 
and  heat  and  life,  like  the  ocean  of  light  which  per- 
petually flows  from  the  sun.  If  it  is  winter  in  our 
souls,  it  is  because  we  have  turned  away  from  God 
and  his  love.  If  it  is  night,  it  is  not  because  God 
has  gone  away  from  us,  but  because  we  have  gone 
away  from  him.  Wait,  poor  soul,  watch,  wait,  listen ; 
and  when  the  Divine  Friend  comes,  hasten  to  open 
the  door  and  to  let  him  in,  and  the  whole  house  of 
your  soul  shall  be  filled  with  new  light  and  life. 


VII 


COMMOI^-SENSE  AND  SCRIPTURE  VIEWS  OF 
HEAVEN  AND  HELL. 


vn. 

COMMON-SENSE  AND  SCRIPTUEE  VIEWS 
•OF  HEAVEN  AND  HELL. 

What  is  heaven  ?  Where  is  heaven  ?  How  does 
one  enter  heaven  ? 

The  most  common  phrases  uttered  about  heaven 
are  such  as  these :  "  Those  who  are  good  shall  go  to 
heaven."  "  I  hope,  when  I  die,  to  go  to  heaven."  "  I 
expect  to  meet  my  friends  in  heaven."  "  When  we 
get  to  heaven,  there  will  be  no  more  sin  nor  sorrow." 

All  of  these  expressions,  and  most  other  expressions 
used  about  heaven,  imply,  1,  That  it  is  a  place ;  2, 
That  it  is  a  place  we  go  to  after  death ;  3,  A  place 
where  only  good  Christians  go;  4,  A  place  of  per- 
fect happiness,  where  they  will  always  remaia 

Now,  it  is  a  little  remarkable  that  such  expressions 
as  these  are  not  to  be  found  in  the  New  Testament. 
In  the  first  place,  heaven  is  often  used  in  its  primi- 
tive and  simple  sense  for  the  sky,  as  when  we  read 
of  "rain  from  heaven,"  "hail  from  heaven,"  "the 
clouds  of  heaven,"  "  the  stars  of  heaven,"  "  the  fowls 
which  fly  in  the  midst  of  heaven."      And  in  the 


144  COMMON-SENSE  IN  RELIGION. 

next  place,  though  heaven  is  put  for  the  home  of  God 
and  of  his  angels,  this  is  not  limited  to  a  distant  place 
or  time.  On  the  contrary,  the  kingdom  of  heaven  is 
Christ's  kingdom,  especially  in  this  world.  Every- 
thing in  heaven  is  not  yet  free  from  evil ;  for  Paul 
says  that  "God  vs^ill  reconcile  to  himself  alL things  in 
heaven  and  earth."  The  heavenly  places  where  Christ 
sits,  on  the  right  hand  of  God,  are  places  where  we 
sit  with  him  now.  "  He  hath  raised  us  up  together 
with  Christ,  and  made  us  sit  together  with  him  in 
heavenly  places."  We  nowhere  read  in  the  Bible  of 
any  one's  expressing  a  wish  to  go  to  heaven  after 
death.  No  one  in  the  New  Testament  speaks  of  what 
he  shall  do  or  have  or  be  when  he  gets  to  heaven. 
These  phrases  are  all  modern  and  unscripturaL 

The  absence  of  these  common  phrases  indicates 
that  the  modern  idea  of  heaven  is  essentially  differ- 
ent from  that  of  the  Bible.  Our  ideas  of  heaven  are 
natural,  and  not  spiritual  We  locate  it  in  space  and 
time,  a  good  many  years  distant,  a  good  many  miles 
away.  Some  persons  place  it  in  the  sun,  and  others 
farther  off.  Some  persons  think  that  we  may  enter 
heaven  as  soon  as  we  die ;  others,  that  we  shall  have 
to  wait  longer,  and  spend  some  time  in  an  interme- 
diate state,  or  a  purgatory.  We  shall  arrive  at 
heaven,  according  to  the  common  idea,  by  living  on 
through  time  and  travelling  on  through  space. 


HEAVEN   AND    HELL.  145 

But  the  Scripture  notion  of  heaven  differs  essen- 
tially from  this.  It  is  above  space  and  above  time, 
therefore  not  natural,  but  supernatural.  We  can  un- 
derstand this  by  an  illustration.  There  are  many 
things  perfectly  real  and  substantial,  which  are  not  in 
space  nor  in  time,  nor  subject  to  the  laws  of  space  or 
time.  Love  is  a  very  real  thing.  We  know  that  it 
exists,  and  we  know  when  it  does  not  exist ;  we  know 
when  it  comes  and  when  it  goes.  But  suppose  some 
one  should  say,  "  What  has  become  of  your  love  for 
me,  and  where  has  it  gone  ? "  And  suppose  the  an- 
swer should  be,  "  It  has  gone  to  Philadelphia."  The 
answer  would  be  absurd,  because  love  does  not  come 
and  go  in  space.  The  same  is  true  of  thought.  If  I 
say,  "  My  thoughts  are  in  London,"  I  should  not  mean 
that  they  were  in  that  portion  of  space,  or  that  they 
had  gone  through  space  to  get  there,  but  only  that  I 
was  thinking  about  London. 

The  heavenly  kingdom  is  a  supernatural  kingdom, 
a  kingdom  above  nature,  therefore  above  space  and 
time.  It  is  a  kingdom  of  God,  it  is  his  presence ;  and 
God  is  not  in  any  particular  space  or  time,  but  pres- 
ent by  his  activity  in  all  space  and  all  time. 

To  be  in  heaven  is  to  be  with  God.  But  we  enter 
the  presence  of  God  by  a  spiritual,  and  not  by  a  nat- 
ural act ;  not  by  taking  a  journey  to  the  top  of  Mount 


146  COMMON-SENSE  IN  RELIGION. 

Olympus,  or  to  the  top  of  Mount  Mern,  but  by  taking 
a  journey  from  a  bad  state  of  mind  to  a  good  state 
of  mind.  We  enter  the  presence  of  God  by  purity 
of  heart.  "  Blessed  are  the  pure  in  heart,  for  they 
shall  see  God."  When  the  heart  is  pure,  we  enter 
heaven.     When  wholly  pure,  we  are  fully  in  heaven. 

It  is  a  mistake  to  suppose  that  the  happiness 
of  heaven  can  come  from  being  in  one  place  rather 
than  another  place.  It  is  only  earthly  happiness 
which  comes  so.  A  change  of  scene  and  circum- 
stances can  produce  real  delight,  but  it  is  earthly 
delight,  and  therefore  transient.  It  is  delightful  to 
see  beautiful  scenery,  to  travel  through  an  interesting 
country,  to  meet  charming  people,  to  have  the  means 
of  indulging  all  one's  tastes  and  wishes.  But  the 
quality  of  these  delights  is  earthly,  not  heavenly.  It 
is  temporal,  and  not  eternal  joy,  therefore  essentially 
transient.  But  heavenly  or  eternal  joy  partakes  of 
the  eternal  nature  of  God.  It  does  not  pass  away ; 
we  can  only  lose  it  by  leaving  it. 

Heaven,  then,  is  the  state  of  the  soul,  when,  rising 
above  space  and  time,  it  communes  with  God  and 
eternity.  When  God  enters  the  soul,  then  heaven 
enters  the  souL 

Heavenly  joy,  therefore,  differs  from  earthly  joy 
in  this,  thfttJ  it  flows  to  us  fpom  within,   and    not 


HEAVEN   AND   HELL.  147 

from  without.  Therefore  it  does  not  consist,  as 
many  suppose,  in  being  with  others  in  a  great  as- 
sembly, and  singing  praise  to  God  with  delicious 
music.  This  would  be  only  another  form  of  earthly 
pleasure,  and,  like  all  other  earthly  pleasure,  would 
soon  tire  us.  Our  hymns  speak  of  sweet  fields 
dressed  in  living  green ;  of  rivers  of  pleasure  which 
flow  over  the  bright  plains  ;  of  pearly  gates,  and  streets 
of  shining  gold ;  of  everlasting  spring,  and  unwither- 
ing  flowers  ;  of  the  absence  of  hunger,  thirst,  and  dis- 
ease. But  all  these  conditions,  were  they  multiplied 
a  thousand  times  over,  could  not  give  us  any  real 
heavenly  joy,  for  that,  we  repeat,  comes  to  us  from 
within,  and  not  from  without. 

Heaven  consists  of  heavenly  knowledge,  love,  and 
action.  It  is  seeing  God's  truth,  loving  God's  good- 
ness, and  doing  God's  will.  These  three  qualities  or 
acts  constitute  the  essence  of  heaven  here,  and  of 
heaven  hereafter.  In  this  world,  though  the  delight 
which  comes  to  us  from  without  is  very  precious,  and 
by  no  means  to  be  despised,  yet  the  delight  which 
comes  from  knowledge,  love,  and  action,  is  all  which 
is  permanent,  all  which  we  can  keep  after  we  have 
gained  it,  all  which  becomes  part  of  the  soul  itself. 

Heaven  consists  of  knowledge,  love,  and  action. 
First,  of  knowledge.     This  is  not  opinion,  or  belief; 


148  COMMON-SENSE  IN   RELIGION. 

it  does  not  come  from  reasoning  or  speculation ;  it  is 
not  verbal  or  formal,  but  is  simply  the  sight  of  truth. 
For,  high  above  the  sphere  of  speculative  belief,  ex- 
tends that  of  truth.  Opinion  fluctuates,  truth  remains 
one  and  the  same.  As  the  mountain  carries  its  sum- 
mit aloft  through  a  region  of  storms  into  one  of 
eternal  sunshine,  so  above  all  disputed  questions,  all 
shifting  clouds  and  creeping  mists  of  earthly  opinion, 
rise  some  truths  which  have  no  change,  nor  shadow 
of  turning.  We  look  at  them  from  below  through 
the  cloud-region,  and  sometimes  they  are  partially 
concealed,  sometimes  wholly  hidden.  But  we  know 
that  they  are  there,  even  when  we  do  not  see  them ; 
and  this  knowledge  is  our  life.  Woe  to  the  sceptic 
to  whom  all  things  are  uncertain ;  who,  because  he 
has  found  so  many  things  false,  believes  that  nothing 
is  real.  To  him  there  can  be  no  peace,  no  rest,  no 
heaven.  God  does  not  mean  that  any  one  should  be 
a  sceptic.  He  gives  us  all  some  certainties  to  begin 
with.  We  are  born  inheriting  a  capital  of  knowl- 
edge, which  we  may  enlarge  by  our  fidelity,  or  squan- 
der by  our  folly.  The  child  is  born  into  a  world  of 
reality.  He  knows  his  own  existence,  he  knows  that 
there  is  a  real  world  about  him.  There  is  a  charm 
and  joy  of  reality  in  every  buttercup,  every  bird, 
every  stone.      And  he  who  loves  truth,  continually 


HEAVEN   AND   HELL.  149 

enlarges  the  sphere  of  knowledge.  He  who  seeks 
truth  for  its  own  sake  never  becomes  a  sceptic.  And 
if  he  carries  into  life  the  truth  which  he  sees,  then  it 
grows  more  and  more  real.  He  becomes  sure  of  the 
everlasting  distinctions  between  truth  and  falsehood, 
right  and  wrong,  good  and  evil.  Nothing  can  shake 
his  steadfast  faith  in  God  and  immortality;  that 
right  is  eternally  good,  and  wrong  eternally  evil. 
And  this  profound  certainty,  this  fixed  knowledge, 
is  one  of  the  elements  of  heaven,  here  and  hereafter. 

Again,  the  essence  of  heaven  is  love.  True  love, 
heavenly  love  is  not  desire,  not  appetite,  not  a  merely 
instinctive  and  clinging  affection.  It  is  something 
higher.  It  is  the  power  of  going  out  of  one's  self  in 
sympathy  with  others.  It  is  giving  one's  self  in  the 
service  of  others.  It  is  joy  and  peace  in  the  sight  of 
a  Divine  beauty  and  goodness  which  flows  into  aU 
things.  When  we  love  others  with  a  true  and  noble 
love,  it  is  because  we  see  in  them  something  Divine. 
The  object  of  love  is,  therefore,  always  the  eternal 
beauty.  To  this  Divine  beauty  we  gladly  sacrifice 
ourselves,  and  find  it  more  blessed  to  give  than  to 
receive.  What  profound  peace  comes  to  the  soul 
which  rests,  after  its  insatiate  longing,  content  in  the 
mere  sight  of  the  perfect  love  ! 

Working  for  good  and  truth  is  the  other  element 


150  COMMON-SENSE  IN  RELIGION. 

of  heaven.  There  is  a  peace  which  comes  from  all 
honest,  faithful  work ;  from  all  work  done  in  a  simple 
sense  of  duty.  The  great  content  of  the  mass  of 
men  is  in  the  necessity  of  daily  work.  Therefore 
the  roots  of  heavenly  joy,  in  this  life  and  the  next, 
are  to  be  found  in  having  plenty  to  know,  to  love, 
and  to  do. 

What  must  we  do  in  order  to  go  to  heaven  ? 

If  the  kingdom  of  heaven  is  within  us,  if .  it  is 
righteousness,  peace,  and  joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost, 
then  evidently  we  shall  not  go  to  heaven  at  all,  but 
heaven  must  come  to  us.  On  this  subject  mistakes 
are  very  great.  In  preaching  and  conversation  the 
opposite  view  is  usually  taken  for  granted.  Heaven 
is  a  place.  It  has  its  walls  and  gates  like  a  royal 
garden.  The  saved  are  admitted  to  it  as  we  admit 
students  to  school  or  college,  by  passing  an  examina- 
tion. All  sects  teach  thus ;  they  differ  only  as  to  the 
nature  of  the  certificate  required.  According  to  the 
Eoman  Catholics  the  certificate  is  given  to  those  who 
have  been  faithful  to  their  church,  and  respectful  to 
the  Virgin  Mary.  According  to  most  Protestants,  it 
is  given  to  those  who  have  held  orthodox  opinions, 
and  have  passed  through  the  process  called  conver- 
sion. According  to  rational  and  practical  Christians, 
it  is  awarded  to  those  who  have  lived  a  good  moral 


HEAVEN  AND   HELL.  151 

life,  and  done  good  actions.  But  in  aU  these  views 
there  is  the  same  error.  They  aU  err  in  assuming 
that  heaven  is  a  place  into  which  we  are  to  be  ad- 
mitted at  the  close  of  life,  after  some  kind  of  exami- 
nation. It  is  assumed  that  there  is  to  be  a  trial  for 
every  soul  after  death,  —  some  one  day  of  judgment, 
when  we  are  to  be  examined,  and  to  present  our  cer- 
tificate. If  this  is  right,  we  go  up  into  heaven ;  if 
not  satisfactory,  we  are  turned  down  into  hell. 

According  to  this  view,  a  view  which  is  either 
taught  distinctly  or  taken  for  gi-anted  in  most 
pulpits,  this  life  is  what  is  called  a  place  of  pro- 
bation ;  at  the  close  of  which  the  trial  is  to  be  held, 
and  the  sentence  will  be  pronounced  of  guilty  or  not 
guilty.  If  the  sentence  is  against  us,  we  are  sent  to 
a  place  called  hell,  to  be  tormented  there  forever,  in 
the-  society  of  devils.  If  we  are  acquitted,  we  go  to 
a  different  place,  called  heaven,  where  we  are  to  be 
happy  forever,  in  the  society  of  angels  and  in  the 
presence  of  God. 

That  one  part  of  the  education  of  life  is  the  testing 
of  character,  we  all  know;  but  this  is  continuous. 
We  are  always  made  stronger  by  the  tests  of  life. 
The  trial  of  faith  worketh  patience.  But  common, 
observation  shows  that  the  world  is  no  such  scene 
of  probation  as  is  commonly  assumed.     We  are  not 


152  COMMON-SENSE   IN   RELIGION. 

here  to  be  tried  for  our  lives,  we  are  here  to  be  edu- 
cated. We  are  tested  by  life  itself,  during  all  of  life, 
and  not  merely  at  its  close.  What  sort  of  a  Chris- 
tian probation  do  those  have  who  are  born  outside  of 
Christendom,  as  are  the  majority  of  the  human  race  t 
Within  Christendom,  how  many  have  ever  had  a 
Christian  education,  or  have  come  under  Christian 
influences  ?  If  they  have  been  under  such  influ- 
ences, how  often  are  they  also  under  other  influences, 
tending  to  neutralize  them.  How  can  any  sentence  of 
"guilty"  or  "not  guilty"  be  pronounced  on  all  men? 
We  are  all  guilty  and  all  innocent;  guilty  in  some 
things,  innocent  in  others.  We  try  to  do  good,  and 
we  fail ;  we  mean  to  do  right,  and  we  do  wrong.  The 
spirit  is  willing,  the  flesh  is  weak.  There  is  a  law  of 
the  mind,  and  a  law  of  the  members ;  sometimes  one 
is  uppermost,  sometimes  the  other.  This  is  the  q^se 
with  the  majority  of  men,  even  in  Christian  lands. 
There  are  some  really  good  people,  going  the  right 
way,  doing  the  right  things:  some  really  bad  peo- 
ple, going  the  wrong  way,  doing  the  wrong  things ; 
but  the  majority  are  neither  very  good  nor  very  bad : 
they  alternate  from  half- virtues  to  half-vices. 

I  can  put  a  watch  on  probation,  and  test  its  going 
day  by  day ;  if  it  gains  or  loses  more  than  so  many 
seconds,  it  is  condemned.     I  can  put  a  gun  on  proba- 


HEAVEN    AXD    HELL.  153 


tion,  and  say  that  unless  it  will  shodt  within  so 
many  inches  of  the  mark  at  three  hundred  yards,  it 
is  condemned.  I  can  put  a  boy  on  probation,  and 
say  that  if  he  makes  more  than  a  certain  number  of 
mistakes  at  his  examination,  he  cannot  be  admitted 
to  college.  But  how  can  mankind  be  put  on  any 
one  decisive  probation  ?  Shall  men  be  tested  by  the 
number  of  sins  they  commit,  or  the  number  of  good 
actions  they  perform  ?  But  some  men  are  born  with 
better  natures  than  others,  some  have  better  influ- 
ences around  them  than  others,  and  therefore,  if 
judged  at  all,  each  must  have  his  own  test.  They 
cannot  be  tested  as  we  test  the  watches,  or  the 
schoolboys,  by  any  one  fixed  standard. 

Suppose,  then,  that  each  man  is  tested  by  a  sliding- 
scale,  arranged  not  only  according  to  his  goodness 
and  wickedness,  but  also  according  to  his  opportu- 
nities and  advantages.  Then  it  would  follow  that 
a  pretty  bad  man  who  had  had  no  opportunities, 
or  poor  opportunities,  would  go  to  heaven;  and  a 
pretty  good  man,  who  had  not  made  equal  use  of  his 
better  opportunities,  would  go  to  hell.  Then  hell 
would  contain  many  people  much  better  than  those 
in  heaven.  This  is  the  dilemma.  If  only  good 
people  are  to  go  to  heaven,  and  only  the  bad  to 
hell,  then  those  will  be  punished  for  not  being  good 
7* 


154  COMMON-SENSE  IN  RELIGION. 

who  have  never  had  any  opportunity  of  being  so,  and 
who  could  not  help  being  bad.  But  if  each  man  is 
rewarded  or  punished  according  to  his  efforts  to  do 
right,  taking  into  account  all  the  circumstances,  then 
good  and  bad  people  will  be  mixed  together  in 
heaven,  and  other  good  and  bad  people  will  be  mixed 
together  in  hell. 

If  heaven  be  a  place,  and  hell  another  place,  it  is 
impossible  to  escape  this  difficulty.  But  if  heaven 
be  inward  happiness  and  peace,  and  hell  be  inward 
dissatisfaction  and  unrest,  then  the  difficulty  disap- 
pears. Just  so  far  as  a  man  is  faithful  and  true  to 
his  conscience  and  his  heart,  he  enters  into  an  in- 
ward heaven ;  just  so  far  as  he  is  false  to  it,  he  goes 
into  an  inward  hell.  The  worm  that  never  dies  is 
conscience,  l^o  matter  how  prosperous  outwardly 
one  may  be,  so  long  as  he  is  doing  wrong  his  con- 
science gives  him  no  rest.  He  may  resist  it,  refuse 
to  hear  it,  fight  against  it,  but  he  cannot  have  any 
real  peace  while  he  refuses  to  obey  it.  This  worm 
never  dies.  And  the  fire  that  is  not  quenched  is  the 
insatiate  desire,  the  longing  for  content,  which  finds 
none  and  can  find  none  in  outward  things.  Insatiate 
desire  is  the  unquenchable  flame. 

The  conception  of  God  derived  from  the  teachings 
of  Jesus,  which  has  become  a  part  of  the  common- 


HEAVEN   AND   HELL.  155 

sense  of  Christendom,  is  that  he  is  a  father.  Now, 
tlii&  notion  of  God  as  a  father  is  utterly  opposed 
to  the  usual  doctrine  of  probation.  Could  a  good 
earthly  father  put  his  cliildren  on  trial  in  this  way  ? 
Could  he  take  his  little  ones  and  test  them,  as  a 
manufacturer  tests  his  goods,  and,  fixing  an  arbi- 
trary mark  of  excellence,  reject  all  that  do  not  come 
up  to  it  ?  No,  ten  times  no !  Those  who  are  low 
down  and  far  off  are  the  very  ones  the  good  earthly 
and  heavenly  father  cares  for  the  most.  The  Son 
of  God  comes  to  seek  and  to  save  those  who  are 
lost. 

Therefore,  according  to  Christ  and  the  New  Testa- 
ment, a  man  carries  his  heaven  and  hell  with  him 
in  the  state  of  his  own  mind  and  heart.  A  selfish, 
proud,  vain,  egotistical  man,  always  thinking  of  him- 
self and  what  he  ought  to  have,  always  afraid  that 
he  shall  not  get  his  rights,  cannot  go  to  heaven. 
For  heaven  consists  in  forgetting  one's  self,  and  lov- 
ing others;  in  rising  out  of  one's  self  in  reverence 
and  worship  for  God  and  goodness ;  in  living  out  of 
one's  self  for  a  great  and  noble  cause,  for  truth,  free- 
dom, humanity. 

Why,  then,  talk  of  going  to  heaven  at  all? 
Heaven  is  close  to  us  all  the  time.  We  stand  on  its 
threshold  at  every  moment.     A¥hy  talk  of  going  to 


156  COMMON-SENSE  IN   RELIGIOX. 

God  ?  Is  not  God  here,  in  this  world,  close  to  our 
heart,  every  hour,  every  moment  ?  He  stands  at  the 
door  and  knocks ;  and,  if  we  are  wdlling,  he  will 
come  in.  It  is  idle  to  talk  of  an  outward  heaven  or 
an  outward  hell,  unless  w^e  first  escape  the  inward 
hell  and  go  into  the  inward  heaven. 

The  most  real  hell,  and  deepest  hell,  is  selfish- 
ness ;  this  is  the  great  gulf  fixed  between  the  evil 
and  the  good,  which  cannot  be  passed  over.  As  long 
as  one  is  thinking  mainly  of  himself,  his  own  little 
successes  and  failures,  his  own  small  merits  or  de- 
merits, so  long  there  is  a  great  gulf  fixed  between 
his  soul  and  heaven.  He  sees  Abraham  afar  off, 
with  Lazarus  in  his  bosom.  He  cannot  enter  into 
communication  with  noble  souls,  with  the  good, 
great,  true,  and  pure ;  for  he  is  himself  too  small  and 
too  mean  for  this.  He  has  in  him  a  worm  that 
never  dies,  and  a  fire  that  is  never  quenched.  He 
is  consumed  by  insatiable  longings.  No  matter  what 
he  has,  he  thinks  he  ought  to  have  more ;  no  matter 
how  much  he  is  honored  and  praised,  he  thinks  he 
ought  to  be  more  honored  and  more  praised,;  no  mat- 
ter what  position  or  power  he  has  gained,  he  thinks 
he  ought  to  have  something  gTeater.  Selfishness  is 
never  satisfied.  It  is  a  perpetual  root  of  discontent. 
It  is  a  hell  which  men  carry  in  their  own  bosoms 
wherever  they  go. 


HEAVEN  AND   HELL.  157 

Shall  we  say,  then,  that  there  is  no  outward 
heaven,  and  no  outward  hell  ?  No ;  we  may  admit 
both.  But  these  have  their  roots  within ;  they  are 
the  fruits  and  results  of  the  inward  heaven  and  in- 
ward hell.  A  generous  man  draws  to  himself  out- 
ward reverence,  love,  and  honor;  he  lives  in  the 
warm  atmosphere  of  love.  A  soul  capable  of  self- 
forgetting  reverence,  looking  up  to  what  is  higher 
than  itself,  is  so  ennobled  and  lifted  up,  that  it  comes 
into  communion  with  what  is  great  and  noble,  and 
eats  and  drinks  with  angels  and  archangels.  We 
must  first  have  heaven  in  the  soul,  and  then  we 
shall  sit  in  heavenly  places. 

I  know  a  woman,  who  has  all  her  life  been  livinor 
for  other  people.  She  has  not  done  this  so  much 
from  conscience  as  from  love.  She  has  somehow 
been  able  to  see  something  good  in  a  great  many 
persons.  Wherever  she  has  gone  she  has  met  with 
heroes  and  heroines.     She  has  discovered  something 

o 

wonderful  and  admirable,  where  the  rest  of  us  saw 
nothing;  for  it  is  love  which  leads  to  sight.  The 
most  of  us  go  from  Dan  to  Beersheba,  and  say  "  It  is 
all  barren,"  because  we  have  not  the  quick  eye  of  love 
to  see  real  goodness,  the  delicate  sense  of  sympathy 
to  perceive  truth  and  nobleness.  This  lady  of  whom 
I  speak  has  never  been  rich,  has  had  to  work  hard  to 


158  COMMON-SENSE  IN   EELIGION. 

support  herself,  has  had  nothing  attractive  about  her 
position  ;  but,  nevertheless,  she  has  lived  in  heavenly 
places  more  than  any  one  I  know.  She  has  made 
acquaintance  with  all  the  best  people.  She  has  been 
attended  by  troops  of  friends.  She  has  personally 
known,  and  that  intimately,  nearly  all  the  people  of 
her  time  with  whom  one  would  wish  to  be  ac- 
quainted. Going  to  Washington  to  serve  a  friend, 
she  saw  Abraham  Lincoln,  whose  acute  mind  looked 
through  her  somewhat  pale  exterior,  and  discovered 
the  jewel  within ;  so  they  two  became  warm  friends. 
Now,  this  is  an  illustration  of  what  we  mean  when 
we  say  that  the  outward  heaven  grows  out  of  the 
inward  heaven,  and  is  its  natural  result.  It  is  only 
the  same  thing  which  Jesus  says,  "  Give,  and  it  shall 
be  given  you :  full  measure,  pressed  down,  and  run- 
ning over,  shall  'men  give  into  your  bosom." 

Therefore  it  follows  that  there  are  a  great  many 
different  heavens,  and  a  great  many  different  hells, 
both  in  this  world  and  in  the  next.  There  are  also 
degrees  in  the  happiness  of  heaven  and  hell,  in  this 
world  and  in  other  worlds.  "  In  my  father's  house," 
says  Jesus,  "  are  many  mansions."  The  law  of  vari- 
ety, which  prevails  in  this  world,  probably  extends  to 
all  others. 

But  there  is  one  element,  not  yet  mentioned,  which 


HEAVEN  AND   HELL.  159 

throws  a  heavenly  radiance  over  our  life  here,  and 
which,  if  we  may  trust  Paul,  is  to  endure  hereafter. 
It  is  Hope.  We  are  all  hoping,  and  on  good  grounds, 
to  be  better  off  to-morrow  than  to-day,  better  off  next 
year  than  we  are  this.  We  are  looking  up,  not  down ; 
forward,  not  backward.  This  lightens  toil,  sweetens 
labor,  makes  discomfort  easy  to  bear.  Every  man, 
woman,  and  child  must  have  something  good  to  look 
forward  to,  in  order  to  be  happy.  This  something 
good  may  be  more  or  less  elevated,  more  or  less  dis- 
tant. These  human,  earthly  heavens  are  of  a  very 
different  kind,  as  we  can  see ;  but  life  is  worth  very 
little  if  we  have  not  some  kind  of  a  heaven  to  look 
forward  to. 

The  child's  heaven  is  the  next  half-holiday;  the 
nearest  hour  in  which  he  can  play  with  his  new  toy, 
his  top,  his  ball,  his  hoop.  The  little  girl  will  be  in 
heaven,  so  she  thinks,  when  she  shall  be  sitting  on 
the  floor  with  her  little  rag-baby,  arranging  its  ward- 
robe. The  poorest  beggar-boy  has,  behind  the  house, 
in  the  muddy  yard,  a  little  structure  of  sticks  and 
stones,  which  is  to  him  a  more  wonderful  piece  of 
architecture  than  the  Strasbourg  Minster ;  and  he  falls 
asleep  dreaming  of  the  morning,  when  he  can  run 
out  barefoot,  and  finish  it.  The  good  God  has  taken 
care  that  all  little  children,  rich  or  poor,  shall  have 


160  COMMON-SENSE  IN   RELIGION. 

this  heaven  of  hope  around  them ;  this  heaven  float- 
ing half  an  hour  before  them,  with  its  romantic, 
poetic  charm,  its  inexhaustible  wonder  and  beauty. 
Children  live  by  hope,  and  are  happy  in  it.  And, 
when  the  child  goes  out  of  this  heaven,  he  presently 
sees  another  before  him.  A  new  hope  comes  up,  to 
feed  his  life.  It  is  the  hope  of  getting  on  in  the 
world,  —  of  becoming  a  great  man,  a  rich  merchant 
with  numerous  ships ;  an  eminent  lawyer,  doctor,  pol- 
itician ;  a  poet  of  renown ;  who  knows  ?  Does  not 
every  bright  boy  believe  himself  a  genius  ?  Does  he 
not  expect  to  glorify  his  name,  and  to  achieve,  in  a 
few  years,  eminent  success  ?  Do  not  laugh  at  the  poor 
child,  0  cynic,  with  your  bitterly  earned  experience  ! 
He  must  have  a  great  deal  of  hope  to  begin  with,  for 
he  has  many  cruel  disappointments  to  endure.  This 
is  the  outfit  provided  for  him  by  Mother  Nature. 

"  The  young  man  puts  to  sea,"  says  Schiller,  "  with 
a  fleet  of  a  thousand  sail ;  he  reaches  the  harbor  an 
old  man,  escaping  from  his  shipwrecked  vessel,  on  a 
single  boat." 

The  outward  heaven  and  hell  are  fastened  to  the 
inward  ones  by  immutable  laws ;  but  they  do  not  come 
at  once.  "  God,"  says  the  proverb,  "  does  not  pay  us 
our  wages  every  Saturday  night."  The  good  man 
may  for  a  long  time  not  reap  the  results  of  his  good- 


HEAVEN   AND   HELL.  161 

ness  ;  the  bad  man  for  a  long  time  may  not  taste  the 
consequences  of  his  sin.  But  they  come  at  last ; 
they  may  be  slow,  but  they  are  sure. 

A  man,  in  a  moment  of  temptation,  commits  some 
small  offence.  He  takes  what  does  not  belong  to 
him ;  he  commits  a  breach  of  trust ;  he  stains  a  little 
the  purity  of  his  soul.  No  evil  consequences  follow ; 
the  sun  rises  and  sets  as  before;  he  enjoys  life  as 
much  as  ever.  So  he  takes  another  step  down,  still 
with  no  bad  results.  At  last  the  habit  of  wrong- 
doing is  created ;  impunity  makes  him  less  cautious  ; 
he  is  on  an  inclined  plane  of  ice,  he  cannot  stop. 
Each  new  act  of  wrong-doing  makes  it  necessary  to 
perform  another.  Years  pass  on.  The  man  is  re- 
spected, esteemed,  lives  in  peace  and  comfort ;  no  one 
is  more  thought  of  than  he.  But  the  irresistible 
laws  of  the  moral  world  are  steadily  bringing  the 
punishment.  As  a  detective  policeman  tracks  his 
prey  through  the  crowded  street,  never  losing  sight 
of  him,  so  the  outward  hell  is  following  surely  after 
the  inward  helL  One  day  detection  comes.  His 
frauds,  his  crimes,  are  made  known.  Public  indigna- 
tion takes  hold  of  him.  Those  whom  he  has  cruelly 
injured  cry  out  against  him.  His  old  friends  cast 
him  off.  From  the  midst  of  prosperity  and  fortune, 
he  goes  down  into  utter  destitution.     Perhaps  he  is 


162  COMMON-SENSE   IN  RELIGION. 

obliged  to  fly  to  a  foreign  land,  and  live  an  obscure, 
lonely  life  ever  after.  Perhaps  he  goes  to  prison,  his 
reputation  forever  gone,  bringing  disgrace  on  his  in- 
nocent family,  ruin  on  himself  and  all  those  most 
dear  to  him.  This  is  the  hell  of  outward  punish- 
ment, which  we  have  all  seen,  again  and  again,  fol- 
lowing on  inward  guilt.  It  is  so  in  this  world ;  why 
shall  it  not  be  so  hereafter  too  ? 

Exposure,  detection,  disgrace ;  this  is  often  the 
worst  part  of  the  punishment  of  crime.  The  prison 
and  the  gallows  are  not  hell  to  an  innocent  man ; 
they  are  often  badges  of  honor.  Paul  in  prison, 
Peter  in  prison,  Tasso  in  prison,  Bunyan  in  prison ; 
these  have  glorified  the  scene  of  their  sufferings,  and 
den  go  to  visit  them  as  to  sacred  shrines. 

"  Stone  walls  do  not  a  prison  make, 
Nor  iron  bars  a  cage. 
Minds  innocent  and  quiet  take 
That  for  a  hermitage  ; 
If  I  have  freedom  in  my  love, 
And  in  my  thoughts  am  free, 
Angels  alone,  who  soar  above, 
Enjoy  such  liberty." 

The  disgrace,  the  shame,  this  is  the  worst  part  of 
the  punishment.  But  what  can  any  exposure  be,  in 
this  world,  to  the  revelations  which  may  come  here- 


HEAVEN   AND   HELL.  163 

after,  when  the  secrets  of  all  hearts  shall  be  revealed? 
We  all  deceive  ourselves,  as  well  as  others.  Who  is 
ready  to  see  even  his  own  sin  as  it  really  is  ?  how 
much  less  that  others  should  see  it !  Who,  then,  can 
bear  the  revelation  of  the  righteous  judgments  of 
God  ?  N'one  but  such  as  keep  their  hearts  pure,  by 
constantly  living  as  in  the  eye  of  their  great  Task- 
master ;  who  search  and  try  their  ways,  and  turn  to 
God  in  their  heart  of  hearts ;  whose  souls  are  fixed 
on  him. 

Churches  and  preachers  are  in  the  habit  of  saying, 
"Eepent,  believe,  and  obey,  and  you  shall  go  to 
heaven."  But  the  Apostle  says,  "  Dwell  in  love,  and 
so  dwell  in  God." 

We  cannot  keep  ourselves  wholly  true  and  pure 
and  generous  by  any  effort  of  our  own ;  but  we  can 
be  kept  pure  and  true  by  the  Spirit  of  God,  if  we 
keep  ourselves  in  God's  presence.  This  is  the  great 
object  and  use  of  prayer.  It  brings  God's  truth 
and  love  into  the  centre  of  our  being.  Deeper  than 
any  plummet  of  thought  ever  sounded,  it  goes  down 
into  the  depths  of  the  soul.  It  feeds  the  roots  of  our 
nature  with  a  Divine  love.  True  prayer,  which  is 
looking  up  to  God  for  good  influence,  is  the  only  safe- 
guard against  the  hells  of  this  life,  and  those  which 
may  be  in  the  life  to  come.     But  aU  the  hells  in  the 


164  COMMON-SENSE  IN   KELIGION. 

future  life,  as  in  this,  are  for  the  sake  of  heaven. 
They  are  all,  in  their  very  nature,  temporal ;  for  all 
evil  is  finite,  and  only  God,  who  is  good,  is  infinite. 
"  He  only  has  immortality " ;  and  therefore  we  are 
told  by  the  Psalmist,  "  If  I  make  my  bed  in  hell, 
thou  art  there."  We  very  often  make  our  bed  in 
hell,  thinking  to  be  happier  there  than  in  heaven. 
But  God's  goodness  appears  in  this,  that  he  does  not 
allow  us  to  be  at  peace  in  hell ;  he  will  not  leave  our 
souls  in  helL  He  allows  us,  indeed,  to  feed  on  husks ; 
but  it  is  that  we  may  remember  how  much  sweeter 
is  our  Father's  house  from  whence  we  came  out.  So 
at  last  good  shall  triumph,  and  death  and  hell  be 
both  cast  into  the  lake  of  fire  and  destroyed.  Then 
shall  there  be  a  new  heaven  and  a  new  earth ;  but  it 
is  nowhere  written  that  there  shall  be  a  new  hell. 

The  new  heavens  and  the  new  earth,  spoken  of 
by  the  Seer  of  Patmos,  intend  a  new  faith  and  a  new 
civilization,  to  come  from  Christianity.  For  one 
result  of  Christianity  shall  be  to  give  us  this  new 
heaven  and  new  earth.  Christianity,  even  now,  is 
gradually  surrounding  man  with  a  new  heaven  and 
a  new  earth. 

Gradually,  not  suddenly.  The  method  of  Chris- 
tianity is  diffusion.  Its  changes  are  vital,  organic; 
not  outside  changes,  but  inside.     It  first  changes  the 


HEAVEN  AND   HELL.  165 

root,  then  the  blade,  finally  the  ear.  It  is  leaven,  per- 
vading the  lump  by  slow  degrees.  It  does  its  work 
thoroughly,  therefore  slowly.  It  respects  the  free- 
dom of  the  will  in  nations,  as  in  individuals.  If  men 
will  not  be  Christians  this  year,  it  does  not  compel 
them  to  be  so ;  it  waits  till  next  year.  So  the  prog- 
ress of  the  world  is  very  slow  to  our  eyes,  and  we  see 
people  now,  as  in  the  times  of  Peter,  saying,  "  Where 
is  the  promise  of  his  coming  ?  for  since  the  fathers 
fell  asleep,  all  things  remain  as  they  were  from  the 
beginning  of  creation."  There  is  no  progress,  say 
they,  only  change.  But  the  answer  of  the  Apostle  is 
good  now :  —  "  One  day  is  with  the  Lord  as  a  thousand 
years,  and  a  thousand  years  as  one  day."  Time  is 
relative;  it  seems,  even  to  us,  to  go  much  more 
quickly  sometimes,  and  more  slowly  at  other  times. 
To  an  insect,  which  lives  but  one  day,  one  day  may 
seem  as  long  as  seventy  years  to  us.  To  an  angel, 
whose  angelic  life  has  lasted  ten  thousand  years,  our 
seventy  years  may  seem  only  like  half  an  hour.  Phi- 
losophers say  there  may  be  creatures  so  small  that 
what  appears  to  us  a  solid  rock  shall  be  to  them  full 
of  open  spaces,  so  that  it  shall  take  them  a  large  part 
of  their  lives  to  travel  from  one  particle  of  the  rock  to 
another.  And,  again,  there  may  be  beings  in  the 
universe,  whose  range  of  vision  is  so  immense  that 


1.66  COMMON-SENSE  IN   RELIGION. 

the  spaces  between  the  stars  disappear;  and  all  the 
stars  come  together  into  one  solid,  shining  mass.  As 
with  space,  so  with  time.  N"o  doubt  there  are  angels 
to  whom  the  eighteen  centuries  which  have  passed 
since  Christ  came  appear  only  like  one  or  two  days. 
Slow  and  fast,  therefore,  do  not  apply  to  these  moral 
movements.  The  real  question  is,  "  Does  the  world 
move  ?  Are  the  new  heavens  and  earth  approach- 
ing, or  are  they  not  ? " 

Christianity  is  making  for  this  world  a  new 
heaven,  and  out  of  that  a  new  earth.  When  we 
see  new  heavens,  then  we  soon  see  a  new  earth. 
So  long  as  heaven  is  believed  to  be  a  place,  in  some 
part  of  the  universe,  where  God  sits  on  a  throne  to 
be  worshipped  by  his  saints,  who  spend  their  time  in 
praising  him,  while  the  devil  sits  on  his  throne  in 
hell,  in  another  part  of  the  universe,  superintending 
the  torments  of  the  sinners,  —  so  long  the  earth  will 
be  regarded  only  as  a  scene  of  probation.  Tempta- 
tion will  then  appear  behind  every  pleasure,  and  sin 
be  hidden  like  poison  in  every  happy  home.  Then 
it  will  seem  man's  duty  to  be  wretched,  and  to 
make  others  so  too.  But  when  we  see  a  new 
heaven,  then  we  see  also  a  new  earth.  Soon  shall 
heaven  be  found  to  be,  not  a  place  only,  but  a  state 
of  mind ;   seen  to  consist  in  knomng  God  and  man. 


HEAVEN  AND   HELL.  167 

in  loving  God  and  man,  and  in  serving  God  and  man. 
Then  we  shall  see  heaven  beginning  in  this  life, 
wherever  God  is  known  as  a  father.  Tlien  shall  we 
see  that  the  Devil,  if  there  be  a  Devil,  can  do  us  no 
more  harm  hereafter  than  he  can  here,  because  all 
his  power  consists  in  tempting  us  to  evil  We  shall 
see  that  when  we  resist  he  runs  away  from  us,  be- 
cause the  Devil  is  the  greatest  coward  in  the  uni- 
verse. Then  shall  the  earth  also  become  different, 
for  the  earth  shall  also  be  made  new.  Life  will  not 
seem  bad,  but  appear  good.  There  will  be  tempta- 
tions here  always;  but  God  will  open  a  way  of 
escape  out  of  them  all.  God  is  here,  is  with  us  now, 
is  with  us  always ;  he  is  our  father  and  our  friend. 
The  day  dawns  sweetly,  the  night  closes  serenely, 
with  this  new  view  of  God. 

We  may  say  that  the  world  has  been  made  alto- 
gether new,  and  life  w^hoUy  different,  by  the  simple 
sight  of  God  as  the  universal  father.  Jesus  has 
shown  us  that  God  is  not  the  God  of  the  Jews  only, 
but  of  all  mankind ;  not  of  the  good  only,  but  of  the 
bad  also ;  not  of  the  wise  and  great  only,  but  of  the 
humble,  ignorant,  and  despised  races  and  men.  He 
is  a  father  who  takes  good  care  of  his  youngest 
children;  who  follows  no  law  of  primogeniture,  by 
which  to  give  all  his  property  to  his  eldest  sons,  but 


168  COMMON-SENSE   IN  EELIGION. 

who  says  "  the  last  shall  be  first,  and  the  first  last." 
He  is  one  who  does  not  give  the  race  always  to  the 
swift,  or  the  battle  to  the  strong ;  who  does  not  keep 
his  school  as  we  ours,  giving  prizes  to  the  bright 
intellects,  and  none  to  the  stupid.  He  is  one  who 
keeps  bringing  up  the  rear-guard  of  humanity,  and 
goes  out  to  seek  and  save  the  lost  sheep.  He  is  one 
who  gives  as  good  wages  to  those  who  have  wrought 
honestly  one  hour,  as  to  those  who  have  worked  all 
day.  This  sight  of  a  heavenly  Father  has  worked 
on  the  world  to  create  a  different  civilization.  There 
is  in  it  a  tendency  to  unite  men  in  a  common  mode 
of  life.  Out  of  the  fatherhood  of  God  comes  the 
brotherhood  of  man.  The  new  heavens  make  the 
new  earth. 


VIII. 

SATAN,  ACCORDING  TO  COMMON- SENSE 
AND  THE  BIBLE. 


vm. 

SATAN,    ACCORDING   TO    COMMON-SENSE 
AND  THE  BIBLE. 

The  common  opinion  is,  that  the  Bible  teaches 
that  Satan  is  an  archangel,  who  rebelled  against  God 
and  fell  from  heaven  ;  that  he  tempted  Eve  to  sin,  in 
the  form  of  a  serpent,  and  since  that  time  has  em- 
ployed himself  in  trying  to  induce  people  to  sell  to 
him  their  souls.  Now,  there  is  nothing  of  all  this  in 
the  Bible.  This  comes,  not  from  the  Bible,  but  from 
Milton's  Paradise  Lost.  The  Bible  tells  us  that  at 
serpent  tempted  Eve,  but  describes  it  as  a  real  ser- 
pent, and  does  not  intimate  that  it  was  the  Devil  in 
disguise.  There  never  was  a  greater  example  of  the 
wonderful  power  of  a  great  poem  than  the  way  in 
which  Paradise  Lost  and  its  pictures  of  heaven,  hell, 
and  paradise  have  been  absorbed  into  the  theology  of 
the  English-speaking  race,  and  bound  up  with  the 
Bible  in  their  belief.  Paradise  Lost  is  the  real  Apoc- 
rypha of  the  English  Bible. 

Satan  appears  first  in  the  Book  of  Chronicles  as 
tempting  David  to   take  a  census.     But  then   the 


172  COMMON-SENSE  IN   RELIGION. 

Book  of  Samuel  says  it  was  the  Lord  who,  in  his 
anger,  moved  David  to  do  this.  To  the  Oriental  na- 
tions the  taking  a  census  seems  an  act  of  vainglory, 
and  is  always  considered  dangerous.  Here  Satan 
simply  stands  for  a  temptation,  not  for  a  person.  But 
he  appears  as  a  person  in  the  Book  of  Job.  He 
comes  before  the  Lord  with  the  other  angels,  who  go 
about  the  world  doing  his  bidding.  He  has  a  mis- 
sion, like  the  rest,  and  he  comes  to  give  an  account 
of  it.  He,  it  seems,  is  the  critical  angel,  the  fault- 
finding angel.  His  business  is  to  sift  character,  to 
test  goodness,  to  find  out  what  a  man  really  is.  Nat- 
urally he  has  become  rather  sceptical  concerning 
human  goodness;  he  has  seen  so  many  men  and 
eities,  and  found  so  many  who  could  not  bear  his 
tests.  He  has  known  the  dark  side  of  life,  and  he 
doubts  whether  the  colors  of  goodness  will  stand. 
That  is  all.  He  is  no  devil,  hot  from  hell ;  his  home 
is  in  heaven,  among  the  other  angels.  The  Lord  asks 
him  whether  he  does  not  think  Job  a  good  man. 
Satan  doubts.  He  says,  "  It  is  easy  for  Job  to  be 
good.  He  is  a  rich  man  ;  he  prospers  in  everything ; 
he  does  not  serve  you  for  nothing."  So  Satan  is 
allowed  to  test  him  by  poverty,  and  he  takes  away 
all  his  wealth.  But  Job  says,  "  The  Lord  gave,  the 
Lord  has  taken  away,"  and  does  not  rebel.     Then 


SATAN.  173 


Satan  is  allowed  to  try  him  with  the  test  of  pain  and 
terrible  disease.  Job  bears  that  too.  Then  came  the 
friends  to  console  him,  and  that  was  too  much.  It 
is  not  said  whether  Satan  sent  them  as  a  final  test, 
or  not.  It  is  very  certain  that  Job's  patience  only 
gave  way  when  they  began  to  prose  and  to  cant  to 
him,  and  tell  him  he  ought  to  say  he  was  a  sinner, 
and  apologize  to  the  Lord.  That  was  more  than  Job 
could  bear ;  and  he  broke  out  in  a  fiery  torrent  of 
noble,  truthful,  honorable,  self-respecting  utterances, 
which,  as  appears  at  the  end  of  the  poem,  were  en- 
tirely satisfactory  to  the  Almighty. 

Satan,  in  all  this,  we  see,  was  only  acting  the  part 
of  a  chemist,  to  whom  a  substance  is  presented  to  be 
analyzed  by  qualitative  analysis.  His  object  was  not 
to  tempt  Job  to  evil ;  it  was  merely  to  find  out  what 
there  was  in  him  good  or  bad.  You  take  a  certain 
substance  to  a  chemist,  and  ask  him  to  analyze  it. 
He  proceeds  to  subject  it  to  a  series  of  tests.  There 
are  a  certain  number  of  alkalies,  acids,  or  oxides 
which  it  may  contain.  The  chemist  applies  one  test 
after  another,  with  which  he  searches  for  them. 
Sometimes  these  tests  make  known  the  presence  of 
a  substance  by  a  change  of  color,  sometimes  by  an 
effervescence,  sometimes  by  a  precipitate.  He  sends 
an  acid  into  the  solution  to  search  for  an  alkali ;  he 


174  COMMON-SENSE  IN   RELIGION.  " 

8ends  an  alkali  to  hunt  for  its  acid.  He  applies 
flame,  if  it  resists  other  re-agents,  and  the  tormented 
substance  is  volatilized ;  that  is,  it  flies  up  in  vapor. 
So,  at  last,  the  chemist  detects  all  the  elements  in 
the  compound  submitted  to  him.  Satan,  in  the  Old 
Testament,  is  just  such  a  chemist.  He  is  searching 
to  find  some  falsehood  in  Job's  religion.  Job  had 
been  tried  by  prosperity ;  that  revealed  no  trace  of 
it.  Satan  then  applied  the  test  of  loss,  bereavement, 
poverty.  Still  no  sign  of  the  evil  appeared;  no 
change  of  color,  no  effervescence  of  anger.  Then  he 
applied  the  test  of  disease  and  pain,  and  still  no  evi- 
dence was  seen  of  any  flaw  or  falsehood  in  his  sin- 
cere piety.  Job  did  not  serve  God  for  wages,  but 
from  reverence  and  conviction. 

In  the.  New  Testament,  in  the  same  way,  Satan  (or 
the  Devil)  appears  as  the  critical  angel  who  comes, 
as  our  text  says,  to  "sift"  men,  to  find  out  their 
weakness  or  their  strength.  In  the  temptation  of 
Jesus  he  appears,  applying  three  separate  tests  to 
i^ee  if  there  was  any  impurity  in  the  heart  of  Christ. 
The  first  test  is  food.  "  Feed  your  soul,"  he  says. 
"With  your  marvellous  powers  turn  stones  into 
bread.  Feed  your  mind  with  knowledge,  your  heart 
with  love,  your  imagination  with  beauty ;  use  your 
gifts  for  self-culture."     That  test  failed  to  show  any 


SATAN.  175 


self-seeking.  Then  he  tried  another,  addressed  to 
"  the  last  infirmity  of  noble  minds,"  —  the  desire  for 
esteem,  fame,  recognition,  love.  '*  Stand  on  the  high- 
est point  of  the  temple,  the  object  of  admiration  to 
the  world,  and  show  yourself  borne  up  by  angels." 
That  also  failed.  !N'o  thought  infirm  colored  the 
cheek  of  Jesus.  Then  he  applied  the  final  test, -r- 
power.  He  said,  "  Take  j^oweVy  to  conquer  the  world 
and  bring  it  to  your  feet.  Make  yourself  the  prophet 
of  mankind,  papal  monarch  of  three  worlds,  viceroy 
of  God,  head  of  the  human  race,  great  captain,  leadr- 
ing  both  Greek  and  Roman,  Hindoo  and  Persian, 
sage  and  savage,  to  Jehovah."  Jesus  said,  "I  do 
not  take  power;  I  receive  it,  when  God  chooses  to 
send  it."  All  the  tests  had  failed,  and  Satan  de- 
parted. i^Q  trace  of  self-seeking  had  been  found  in 
that  perfect  heart. 

We  cannot  think  that  these  temptations  came  to 
Jesus  from  any  personal  devil  It  was  the  tempta^ 
tion  incarnated  ijn  life  itself,  —  far  more  difficult  to 
resist  than  any  visible  Satan.  It  was  the  temptation 
which  came  inevitably  to  Jesus  as  his  faculties 
ripened  within  him  and  his  work  opened  before 
him.  There  was  necessarily  an  awful  struggle  in  his 
soul,  knowing  his  own  vast  powers,  and  seeing  the 
vexatious  limitations  of  circumstances.     That   thei 


176  COMMON-SENSE  IN  RELIGION. 

hard,  cold,  pedantic  Pharisees,  whom  he  could  anni- 
hilate, if  he  chose,  by  the  breath  of  his  mouth,  should 
be  allowed  to  defeat  his  whole  work,  and  prevent  him 
ftom  bringing  the  kingdom  of  heaven  to  tiie  poor  in 
spirit,  the  mourners,  those  who  labored  and  were 
heavy  laden,  —  his  poor,  humble  friends,  —  that  was 
hard.  If  for  one  moment  he  could  consent  to  do  evil 
that  good  might  come,  to  do  a  little  wrong  for  a 
great  right,  to  fight  the  Devil  with  fire,  for  a  noble, 
divine  end  to  use  some  worldly  means,  he  would 
triumph  over  all  evil  and  establish  God's  kingdom  on 
earth.  That  was  his  temptation ;  but  he  resisted  it, 
seemed  to  fail,  died  on  the  cross  amid  the  tears  of 
earth,  and  beneath  the  black  sky  of  the  melancholy 
heavenSw 

I  do  not  think  that  Jesus  considered  Satan  or  th6 
Devil  as  a  personal  tempter.  In  his  prayer  he  sayd 
to  God,  "  Lead  us  not  into  temptation."  And  in  his 
advice  to  his  disciples  to  watch  and  pray,  he  adds, 
"lest  ye  enter  into  temptation;  the  spirit  is  willing, 
the  flesh  is  weak."  The  inward  source  of  temptation 
is  not  the  Devil,  but  the  flesh,  or  human  desire ;  the 
external  source  is  not  the  Devil,  but  the  providence 
of  God,  who  leads  us  where  the  temptation  may  ar- 
rive. That  does  not  look  as  if  he  believed  in  a 
personal  tempter: 


SATAN.  177 


Jesus  mentions  the  Devil  five  times,  and  of  these 
five  he  twice  applies  the  word  to  human  beings,  — 
once  when  he  calls  Judas  a  devil,  "  Have  I  not  chosen 
you  twelve,  and  one  of  you  is  a  devil  ? "  and  when 
he  told  the  Jews  who  opposed  him  that  they  were 
"  of  their  father,  the  Devil " ;  meaning  that  the  spirit 
of  deviltry,  or  opposition,  was  in  them.  He  uses  the 
word  "  Satan  "  seven  times ;  and  in  one  of  these  cases 
he  applies  it  to  Peter,  saying,  "  Get  thee  behind  me, 
Satan."  It  was  when  Peter,  urged  by  real  love  for 
his  Master,  wished  him  not  to  go  to  Jerusalem  and 
die.  "  Take  pity  on  yourself ;  do  not  go."  That  was 
all.  But  Jesus  said  to  him,  "  You  are  my  Satan  now, 
my  tempter.  If  you  really  loved  me  in  the  best 
way,  you  would  wish  to  have  me  do  my  work,  and 
die  in  doing  it.  You  would  strengthen  me  to  go, 
even  if  I  am  to  die ;  you  would  not  weaken  me." 
This  we  can  understand.  But  it  seems  impossible, 
if  Jesus  believed  in  a  real  Devil,  or  Satan,  from 
whom  temptations  come,  that  he  could  have  called 
Judas  "  a  devil,"  and  Peter  "  Satan." 

If  Judas  was  a  devil,  if  Peter  was  also  a  satan, 
it  follows  that  there  is  more  than  one  satan.  In 
fact,  every  man  has  a  different  one  from  every  other 
man.  My  satan  is  not  yours,  nor  yours  mine.  Ju- 
das would  not  probably  have  been  mortified  as  Peter 

8*  L 


178  COMMON-SENSE  IN   RELIGION. 

was  by  the  laugh  of  the  maid-servant ;  Peter  would 
not  have  sold  his  Master  for  thirty  pieces  of  silver. 
The  satan  of  Peter  was  what  we  call,  in  modern 
language,  Mrs.  Grundy.  It  was  fear  of  common  talk, 
common  ridicule,  of  what  the  people  about  him  would 
say.  He  could  fight  with  the  soldiers,  and  cut  off 
the  right  ear  of  an  enemy ;  he  could  not  bear  to  be 
laughed  at  by  his  friends  or  his  companions.  The 
same  satan  tempted  him  again,  years  after,  when  he 
was  a  pillar  of  the  church ;  and  again  he  fell.  Paul 
describes  it.  Peter  at  Anti6ch  associated  with  Gen- 
tile Christians,  until  the  Jewish  Christians,  wha 
hated  and  despised  th^m,  arrived;  then  he  had  no 
longer  the  courage  of  his  opinions,  and  he  pretended 
not  to  know  them.  But  be  not  •too  severe  on  Peter. 
Do  we  never  do  the  same  ?  Are  not  we  afraid  of 
what  people  will  say  ?  The  satan  that  sifted  him 
like  wheat  is  not  yet  dead ;  he  sifts  our  souls  to-day. 
Methinks  we  have  known  those  who  were  on  very 
friendly  terms  with  people  they  met  in  the  country 
or  by  the  sea-shore,  but  who  afterward,  in  other  soci- 
ety, turned  to  them  the  cold  shoulder.  The  love  of 
human  approbation,  the  fear  of  pubhc  opinion,  the 
power  of  fashion,  the  dread  of  ridicule,  —  how  often 
these  make  us.  afraid  to  confess  our  real  opinions ; 
how  they  make  us  deny  with   oaths  that  we  ever 


SATAN.  179 


heard  the  trutlis  which  in  our  hearts  we  believe. 
Another  satan  came  to  Ananias,  and  "  filled  his  heart 
to  lie  to  the  Holy  Ghost/'  This  was  the  satan  of 
hypocrisy,  who  urged  him  to  pretend  to  be  better 
than  he  was.  Wlien  poor  Ananias  was  exposed,  his 
pride  received  such  a  dreadful  blow  that  he  fell  down 
dead.  Our  nerves  are  more  tough.  Exposure  does 
not  inflict  any  fatal  injury  now.  Men  of  the  first 
respectability  are  detected  in  swindling,  in  breaches 
of  sacred  trust,  and  they  do  not  seem  very  much 
ashamed  of  it.  Ananias  cheated  no  one ;  he  merely 
pretended  to  be  better  than  he  was.  Are  not  we 
sometimes  willing  to  seem  better  than  we  are,  to 
take  credit  which  does  not  belong  to  us  ?  How  often 
do  we  say,  "  I  think  it  my  duty  to  do  this,"  when,  in 
fact,  it  is  only  our  pleasure  to  do  it !  How  often  we 
profess  to  make  sacrifices  for  conscience,  and  take  the 
position  of  martyrs  for  truth,  when,  in  fact,  our 
martyrdom  is  simply  doing  what  we  like ! 

The  satan  who  entered  the  heart  of  Judas  is  com- 
monly supposed  to  have  been  the  very  Prince  of 
Darkness.  Poor  Judas  has  stood,  for  eighteen  hun- 
dred years,  on  the  summit  of  human  villany ;  thq 
past-master  of  all  baseness  and  blackness  of  crime. 
It  was  only  because  he  sinned  against  Jesus  that  it 
seems  so.    He  had  the  awful  fate  of  being  able  to 


180  COMMON-SENSE  IN   RELIGION. 

commit  his  treason  against  the  Saviour  of  the  world. 
But  do  not  we  sometimes  betray  our  Saviour  too? 
Perhaps  Jesus  comes  to  u^  to-day  in  a  different  form. 
He  comes  in  a  good  cause,  the  cause  of  justice,  hu- 
manity, right,  but  it  is  unpopular;  we  shall  los6 
position,  money,  influence,  if  we  adopt  it,  so  we  think 
it  our  duty  not  to  adopt  it.  Perhaps  We  make  a  bet^ 
ter  bargain  than  Judas ;  we  get,  not  thirty  doUara, 
but  thirty  thousand ;  yet  the  principle  is  the  same. 
Or,  perhaps,  Jesus  comes  to  us  in  the  form  of  our 
country,  crucified  between  two  thieves.  Its  public 
offices  are  seized  by  robbers;  its  sacred  ballot-box, 
the  palladium  of  its  liberty,  is  violated  by  atrocious 
fraud.  We  are  asked  to  give  a  few  days  every  year 
to  the  service  of  the  country,  but  we  cannot  leave 
our  shops  long  enough  even  to  go  and  vote.  Yet  w6 
talk  loudly  of  the  blessings  of  free  institutions ;  we 
brag,  when  we  meet  a  foreigner,  about  our  glorious 
republic.  0  Judas  !  you  betray  your  Saviour  with  a 
kiss  !  The  very  men  who  say  that  Women  must  not 
vote,  because  their  sphere  is  at  home  in  the  kitchen, 
will  not  vote  themselves.  "Where  is  their  sphere,  — 
in  the  cellar,  or  the  garret?  Their  country  is  like 
the  poor  traveller  who  fell  among  thieves,  and  they 
pass  by  like  the  Levite  and  the  priest ;  but  when  any 
Good  Samaritan  comes  near,  and  wishes  to  help  him. 


SATAN.  181 


they  say,  "  0  no  !  his  sphere  is  elsewhere ;  let  him 
go  and  help  the  people  in  Samaria ! " 

The  day  wiU  come  when  all  places  of  business  will 
be  closed  by  law  on  election  day,  just  as  on  the  Sun- 
day ;  when  cheating  at  the  polls  will  be  treated  as 
worse  than  sacrilege  or  homicide ;  and  when  every 
man  who  does  not  vote  will  be  punished  by  fine  or 
disenfranchisement. 

The  satans  of  the  New  Testament  are  not  all 
messengers  of  evil;  they  are  often  angels  of  good. 
Paul  tells  the  Corinthians  (1  Cor.  v.  5)  to  deliver 
an  offender  to  Satan,  for  the  destruction  of  the  flesh, 
that  his  spirit  may  be  saved;  Satan,  somehow,  was 
to  be  the  means  of  saving  the  man's  soul.  So  Paul 
tells  Timothy  that  he  has  delivered  Hymenaeus  and 
Alexander  to  Satan,  that  they  may  learn  not  to  blas- 
pheme ;  Satan,  somehow,  was  to  teach  them  rever- 
ence for  sacred  things.  Paul  had  a  messenger  of  a 
satan  sent  to  him,  so  he  says,  to  humble  him,  and  to 
keep  him  from  being  proud.  If  Satan  makes  Paul 
humble,  makes  Alexander  reverent,  and  saves  the 
soul  of  the  Corinthian  church-member,  Satan  cer- 
tainly cannot  be  all  bad.  He  also  is  an  angel  of 
God.  He  may  do  us  temporary  evil,  but  perhaps  we 
need  it  for  our  ultimate  good. 

The  satans  of  the  present  day  seldom  appear  in 


X82  COMMON-SENSE  IN  KELIGION. 


hoofs  and  horns.  They  disguise  themselves  as  angels 
of  light.  When  they  tempt  us,  they  seem  to  be  in- 
yiting  us  to  some  great  and  noble  action.  Satan 
sometimes  comes  as  the  angel  Good-Nature,  and  pre^ 
tends  to  be  very  sympathizing  and  friendly.  But 
this  good-natured  satan  may  be  our  worst  foe.  He 
allows  us  to  do  wrong ;  he  will  not  tell  us  the  sharp 
truth  we  need  to  hear.  He  allows  us  to  confirm  all 
our  bad  habits  by  not  honestly  checking  them  in 
time.  Then  there  is  a  fault-finding  satan,  of  the 
opposite  sort,  who  makes  men  worse  by  perpetually 
pointing  out  defects,  always  showing  us  our  sins, 
never  our  goodness.  He  calls  himself  the  angel  of 
truthfulness,  but  he  only  tells  half  the  trath.  He 
discourages  us,  and  destroys  our  hope.  He  some- 
times ascends  the  pulpit,  this  gloomy  satan,  and  tries 
to  make  us  believe  that  God,  the  dear  father,  is  as 
harsh  and  unrelenting  as  he  is  himself  He  talks,  in 
awful  tones,  of  the  exceeding  sinfulness  of  sin;  he 
tries  to  show  that  we  are  totally  depraved,  with  no 
good  thing  in  us.  He  insists  that  we  hate  God,  and 
only  deserve  eternal  damnation.  He  •  calls  this  the 
gospel  of  good  news.  But  it  is  not  an  air  from 
heaven,  it  is  a  blast  from  hell.  The  words  of  Jesus 
are  indeed  often  full  of  warning,  they  point  out  dan- 
ger ;  but  they  are  never  gloomy.     They  never  dis- 


SATAN.  183 


courage.  When  this  solemn  satan  meets  a  sinner, 
he  says,  "  It  is  a  dreadful  thing  to  fall  into  the  hands 
of  God.  God  is  a  consuming  fire."  When  Jesus 
meets  the  sinner,  he  says,  "  Son,  be  of  good  cheer,  thy 
sins  are  forgiven  thee."  Any  gospel  which  discour- 
ages us  is  "another  gospel";  the  true  gospel  always 
brings  good  news,  inspires  hope,  takes  away  anxiety, 
and  so  makes  goodness  less  difficult,  in  making  us 
happy. 

There  is  also  a  satan  of  little  things,  a  satan  so 
small  you  can  hardly  see  him.  He  is  a  little  bit  of  a 
satan,  pretending  to  be  no  satan  at  alL  He  tempts 
us  to  do  wrong  by  saying,  "  0,  that  is  of  no  conse^ 
quence.  That  is  a.  very  little  error.  Do  not  be  so 
puritanical.  It  is  not  quite  right,  to  be  sure,  but  it 
does  not  signify.  It  is  only  one  pound,  and  you 
may  bury  it  in  the  earth,  and  no  harm  done.  You 
cannot  do  much,  so  you  had  better  not  do  anything."- 
He  pretends  to  be  the  angel  of  modesty,  thi^  little; 
satan.  He  §ays,  "Do  not  put  yourself  forward,  or 
volunteer  to  do  anything  for  Christ ;  it  will  seem  pre- 
sumptuous." Then  there  is  the  satan  of  cowardice,^ 
who  transforms  himself  into  the  angel  of  prudence ; 
and  the  satan  of  meanness,  who  gives  himself  out  as. 
the  angel  of  economy;  and  the  satan  of  wilfulness 
and  egotism,  who  comes  in  the  robes  of  the  angel  of 


184  COMMON-SENSE  IN   RELIGION. 

self-reliance;  and  the  satan  of  obstinacy,  who  dis- 
guises himself  as  the  angel  of  firmness;  and  the 
satan  of  bigotry  and  intolerance,  who  calls  himself 
the  angel  of  truth ;  and  the  satan  of  cant,  who  pre- 
tends to  be  Divine  piety. 

But  these  are  all  allowed  to  come  in  order  to  probe 
us,  to  test  us,  to  try  us.  They  are  the  detective 
police  of  the  heavens,  who  bring  to  light  our  inmost 
thoughts.  In  despotic  nations,  if  a  man  is  supposed 
to  be  conspiring  against  the  government,  the  police 
come  to  his  house  when  he  is  away,  and  search  for 
hidden  papers  which  may  reveal  his  plots.  They 
look  under  the  carpets,  they  take  up  the  floor,  they 
sound  the  walls,  they  probe  the  cushions  with  long 
pins,  they  leave  not  a  square  inch  of  his  rooms  unex- 
amined. So  the  satans  of  God  search  every  corner 
of  our  heart,  and  bring  to  light  our  inmost  purpose. 
They  reveal  us  to  ourselves  ;  they  show  us  what  we 
are.  We  are  to  resist  them,  and  fight  against  them, 
and  yet  be  glad  that  they  have  come  to  fight  with 
us.  We  must  meet  them  in  the  armor  of  God,  and 
so  prevail 

God  allows  all  these  satans  for  our  good,  not  for 
our  evil.  They  come  to  test  us,  to  find  out  what  is 
in  our  heart.  Perhaps  this  world  is  a  great  manu- 
factory of  souls,  who  are  to  be  employed  in  noble 


SATAN.  185 


tasks  afterward.  In  this  world  we  are  sometimes  to 
be  sifted  and  tried,  just  as  a  steam-engine  or  a  rifle  is 
tried  before  it  is  put  to  use.  If  there  is  a  weakness 
or  a  flaw  anywhere,  it  is  best  that  it  should  be  found 
out  in  good  season,  before  it  can  do  too  much  harm. 
In  a  gun-factory  aU  the  rifle-barrels  are  heavily 
loaded,  and  shut  up  together  in  a  stone  building  and 
fired  by  a  match.  Some  burst,  and  need  to  be  made 
over  again ;  some  bear  the  test,  and  come  out  strong 
and  safe.  The  rifles  might  say,  "  Why  are  we  tempt- 
ed in  this  way  ?  Why  are  we  encouraged  to  burst 
by  this  heavy  load  ?  Is  it  not  a  devilish  attempt  to 
harm  us  ? "  "  No  "  is  the  reply.  "  You  are  tested 
now,  so  that  you  may  show  any  flaw  or  speck  when 
it  cannot  do  much  harm ;  so,  hereafter,  in  the  great 
war  for  freedom,  on  the  battle-field  of  right,  when 
you  are  to  fight  for  justice  and  honor  against  evil, 
you  may  do  good  service  for  God  and  man.  We  test 
you  now,  that  you  may  not  burst  then." 

Thu3  the  Bible  view  of  temptation  and  the  com- 
mon-sense view  turn  out  to  be  the  same.  The  Bible 
says,  "  Count  it  all  joy  when  ye  fall  into  divers 
temptations ;  knowing  this,  that  the  trial  of  your 
faith  worketh  patience:  and  let  patience  have  its 
perfect  work."  Temptation,  which  came  to  Jesus, 
which  comes  to  all,  is  something  which  aU  need. 


186  COMMON-SENSE  IN  RELIGION. 


which  is  a  good  thing ;  only  we  pray,  "  Lead  us  not 
into  temptation,"  meaning  by  that  prayer  any  temp- 
tations which  are  too  great  for  our  present  strength. 
A  man  conscious  of  any  weakness  ought  to  avoid 
temptation  in  that  direction.  If  he  knows  that  he  is 
apt  to  yield  to  his  love  for  liquor,  he  should  abstain 
entirely.  If  he  knows  that  his  love  for  gaming,  for 
the  lust  of  the  eye,  the  lust  of  the  flesh,  or  any  other 
evil,  is  very  great,  he  should  flee  all  such  temptations 
for  his  life.  The  man  who  has  found  out  what  his 
besetting  sin  is  does  not  need  to  be  tested  any  more. 
Temptation  has  done  its  work  in  making  him  hum- 
ble. Now  he  can  pray^  "  Lead  me  not  into  tempta- 
tion hereafter,"  and  yet  be  glad  that  he  has  fallen 
into  tenaptations  which  have  revealed  him  to  him- 
seE 

"Take  then  to  yourselves  the  whole  armor  of 
God,"  says  Paul,  comparing  our  life  to  the  deadly 
struggle  of  gladiators  in  the  bloody  arena,  —  that  ye 
may  be  able  to  stand  against  the  cunning  of  the 
Devil.  For  we  fight  not  with  men,  —  they  are  not 
our  real  enemies,  —  but  with  principles  behind  them 
and  above  them,  — principalities  and  powers  and  ru- 
lers of  the  darkness  of  this  world ;  with  base  ideas ; 
with  false  notions;  with  ignorance  and  shams  and 
cant  and  lies.     Therefore  take  the  panoply  of  God ; 


SATAN.  187 


be  clad  with  Divine  armor  from  head  to  heel.  Have 
honesty  for  your  breastplate ;  for  an  honest  purpose 
is  a  sure  defence  against  temptation.  Have  inward 
truth,  truth  of  soul,  for  your  support,  guide,  and 
strength.  Have  your  feet  shod  with  alacrity  of  pur- 
pose, and  readiness  to  rush  forward  against  the  foe, 
yet  in  the  spirit  of  peace  and  love.  And,  above  all, 
have  the  shield  of  faith,  the  helmet  of  salvation,  and 
the  sword  of  the  Spirit,  which  is  the  Word  of  God. 
"With  such  weapons  we  need  never  fear.  All  the 
satans  of  this  world,  all  the  satans  in  our  own  hearts, 
cannot  conquer  us  while  we  trust  in  God,  while  we 
love  his  truth  and  seek  to  do  his  will. 


IX. 

CONCERNING  THE  FUTURE  LIFE. 


IX. 
CONCERNING  THE  FUTURE  LIFE. 

It  is  a  fact,  account  for  it  as  you  will,  that  the 
disciples  of  Christ,  after  he  had  been  put  to  death  as 
a  criminal,  and  seemed  wholly  gone  from  them,  sud- 
denly acquired  a  new  confidence  and  a  living  hope. 
It  is  a  fact  to  which  history  testifies,  that  they  ap- 
peared to  have  no  fear  of*  death.  They  even  courted 
it,  and  fell  in  love  with  martyrdom.  They  would 
not  even  speak  of  dying  or  of  death,  ^vdih.  new 
ideas  there  came  a  new  vocabulary,  —  they  only  said^ 
"  They  have  fallen  asleep  "  ;  they  called  their  resting- 
place  a  dormitory.  To  their  minds,  somehow,  a 
bridge  had  been  constructed  over  the  great  gulf 
which  lies  between  this  world  and  the  next,  and  they 
saw  God's  angels  ascending  and  descending  along 
that  celestial  highway. 

The  epitaphs  of  the  early  Christians  all  have  this 
celestial  tone.  They  have  no  gloomy  symbols  of 
despair,  but  only  signs  of  encouragement.  "Herfe 
sleeps  my  dear  wife  Portia."  "  Rest  in  peace.  Brother 
Caius."    "She  reposes  here  in  hope."      Such  is  the 


192  COMMON-SENSE  IN  RELIGION. 

spirit  of  the  early  Christian  cemeteries.  They  lighten 
up  the  gloom  of  the  catacombs  with  their  words  of 
confidence.  The  Christians  in  Eome  could  not  lay 
their  friends  under  the  growing  grass  and  beneath 
the  sunshine ;  they  had  to  hide  them  in  the  caver- 
nous excavations  below  the  city.  But  their  trium- 
phant faith  filled  those  dark  recesses  with  the  light 
of  a  better  day,  and  the  Sun  of  Eighteousness  shone 
in  there  with  healing  in  his  beams. 

According  to  the  New  Testament,  death  is  nothing, 
and  is  not  to  be  regarded  as  anything.  The  Apostle 
says  that  Jesus  "  has  abolished  death " ;  that  is,  has 
annihilated  it.  This  accords  with  what  Jesus  him- 
self says :  "  Those  who  believe  in  me  do  not  die " ; 
that  is,  death  is  nothing  to  them.  Of  course. 
Christians,  like  others,  pass  through  the  change  which 
is  called  dying ;  therefore,  when  Jesus  says  "  they  do 
not  die,"  he  must  mean  that  it  has  to  them  none 
of  the  character  of  death. 

From  this  it  would  seem  to  follow  that  it  is  not 
the  duty  of  a  Christian  to  think  about  death  at  all, 
but  only  of  life.  Death  is  night,  and  the  Christian 
lives  in  the  day.  "We  are  of  the  day,"  says  the 
Apostle.  The  sun  swallows  up  the  doirknesa,  and 
destroys  night. 

Nevertheless,  it  has  often  been  taught  in  Christian 


CONCERNING   THE   FUTURE   LIFE.  193 

pulpits  that  we  ought  to  think  a  gi-eat  deal  about  our 
"latter  end."  But  there  is  no  end  to  life,  "what 
seems  so  is  transition."  To  spend  our  life  in  think- 
ing about  death  is  very  much  as  if  we  should  occupy 
the  day  in  meditating  upon  the  night.  Let  the  night 
take  care  of  itself,  but  let  day  occupy  us  with  the 
works  of  the  day. 

In  the  little  conversation  between  Jesus  and  Mar- 
tha, after  the  death  of  Lazarus,  Martha  speaks  of  the 
resurrection  as  "  the  last  day."  Her  mistake  was,  to 
suppose  the  resurrection  something  outward  and 
distant,  instead  of  something  inward  and  present. 
When  Jesus  said  to  her,  "Thy  brother  shall  rise 
again,"  she  responded,  "I  know  that  he  shall  rise 
again  in  the  resurrection  at  tlie  last  day."  The  res- 
urrection, so  she  thought,  was  to  be  '\  at  the  last  day," 
at  the  end  of  the  world.  But  Jesus  answered,  "  I  am 
the  resurrection  and  the  life,"  —  an  obscure  answer, 
apparently.  We  see  well  enough  how  he  is  the  life ; 
his  truth,  his  love,  his  influence,  are  the  life  of  the 
soul.  He  is  spiritual  life.  But  how  is  he  the  resur- 
rection ?  If  the  resurrection  is,  as  Martha  supposed 
it  to  be,  something  outward  and  remote,  then  it  is 
very  difficult  to  understand  what  Jesus  meant  by 
saying,  "/  am  the  resurrection."  But  if  the  resur- 
rection is  the  rising  of  the  soul  out  of  fioubt  and  fear 

9  M 


194  COMMON-SENSE  IN   RELIGION. 

into  faith  and  hope,  then  Jesus  is  the  resurrection 
exactly  as  he  is  the  life ;  that  is,  his  truth,  his  love 
and  influence,  are  the  resurrection  of  the  soul,  just  as 
they  are  the  life  of  the  soul.  In  other  words,  the 
resurrection  is  spiritual  resurrection,  just  as  the  life 
is  spiritual  life. 

Outward  death  —  what  we  call  death  —  is  nothing  ; 
it  is  merely  the  soul  laying  down  its  present  instru- 
ments in  order  to  take  up  others.  It  is  stepping 
out  of  one  body  into  another.  The  only  real  death 
is  the  souVs  death ;  that  is,  sin,  moral  evil,  ignorance, 
unbelief  The  soul  which  lives  in  sin  is  a  dead  soul, 
dead  in  all  its  higher  faculties.  Christ  comes  to 
raise  it  out  of  this  spiritual  death  into  spiritual  life, 
and  then  we  say,  "  The  law  of  the  spirit  of  life,  in 
Christ  Jesus,  has  made  us  free  from  the  law  of  sin 
and  death." 

When  Jesus  says,  "  He  who  believeth  in  me  hath 
eternal  life  abiding  in  him,  and  I  will  raise  him  up 
at  the  last  day,"  he  does  not  mean  "  I  will  raise  his 
body  out  of  the  grave  at  some  future  time  " ;  but  he 
means,  I  will  raise  him,  ultimately,  into  a  higher  state 
of  being.  He  means  to  say.  He  who  believes  in  me 
takes  my  faith  in  God  and  man.  To  believe  in 
me  is  to  share  my  confidence,  my  hope,  my  trust 
in  the  Divine  love.     IJe  who  has  this  conftdence  has 


COlfCEIlNiNG  THE  FUTURE  LIFE.  195 

in  him  now  the  principle  of  eternal  life ;  and  when  I 
give  him  this  principle  I  give  him  what  shall  finally 
find  ultimately  raise  him  into  a  higher  outward  con- 
dition of  being. 

But  there  are  a  great  many  persons,  even  in 
Christian  lands,  who  do  not  believe  in  immortality. 
They  believe  in  death,  but  not  in  life.  Many  of 
them  are  very  intelligent  and  scientific  people,  like 
Dr.  Blichner,  the  German,  who  has  recently  come  to 
lecture  to  us,  and  who  is  the  most  determined  unbe- 
liever in  God  and  immortality.  Dr.  Blichner  is  one  of 
a  class,  not  very  common,  who  not  only  does  not  be- 
lieve in  God,  but  who  thinks  belief  in  God  something 
which  ought  to  be  opposed.  He  considers  it  a  great 
■evil  to  have  any  religion.  He  stands  just  where  Lu- 
cretius stood  before  Christ  was  born ;  thinking  that 
the  great  evils  of  life  are  belief  in  God  and  in  the  soul, 
and  that  to  teach  that  there  is  nothing  but  force  and 
matter  is  the  cure  for  all.  Just  as  theologians  have 
dogmatized  and  been  bitter  against  all  unbelievers, 
so  atheists  are  now  beginning  to  dogmatize  and  be 
bitter  against  all  believers.  In  a  recent  number  of 
the  Westminster  Review  there  is  an  article  which 
shows  this  tendency  in  a  high  degree.  It  begins  by 
stating  that,  so  far  as  human  reason  can  arrive  at  any 
judgment  at  all  on  the  subject.  Dr.  Buchner  appears 


196  COMMON-SENSE  IN  RELIGION. 

correct  in  his  belief  that  a  self-conscious  existence 
hereafter  "is  an  impossibility."  Physical  death  is 
the  termination  of  individual  existence;  that  is  as- 
sumed as  something  proved,  about  which  there  can 
be  no  doubt. 

Now,  if  such  a  thinker  asks  us  why  we  believe  in  a 
future  life,  and  if  he  declares  the  immortality  of  man 
an  impossibility,  what  shall  we  say  ? 

I  think  we  may  say,  first,  that  when  one  declares 
immortal  life  to  be  "impossible"  he  says  what  he 
cannot  prove.  It  is  certainly  possible  that  men  have 
souls  as  well  as  bodies.  It  is  ^possible  that  souls  may 
exist  independently  of  the  body ;  and,  if  so,  it  is 
possible  that  man  may  live  hereafter. 

Then  we  may  go  on  and  say,  further,  that  the  uni- 
versal belief  in  a  future  life,  in  all  times,  among  aU 
races  of  men,  under  every  form  of  religion,  shows 
that  it  is  the  dictate  of  common-sense  to  believe  it. 
Men  are  made  to  believe  in  immortality  just  as  they 
are  made  to  beheve  in  right  and  wrong,  good  and 
evil,  cause  and  effect,  the  finite  and  infinite.  Some 
beliefs  come  to  us  of  themselves ;  they  are  indepen- 
dent of  argument ;  they  are  underived  from  logic ; 
they  are  the  natural  outcome  of  human  nature.  If 
any  belief  can  be  called  natural  and  human,  it  is  the 
belief  in  a  future  life ;  for  it  is  the  most  universal  of 


CONCERNING  THE  FUTURE  LIFE.  197 

alL  If  you  excavate  the  tombs  in  Egypt,  five  thou- 
sand years  old,  you  find  elaborate  pictures  represent- 
ing the  judgment  of  the  soul  after  death.  If  you 
read  the  laws  of  Manu,  received  by  the  Hindoos  one 
thousand  years  before  Christ,  they  are  full  of  descrip- 
tions of  the  state  of  the  soul  hereafter.  The  Komana 
and  Greeks  had  their  heaven  and  heU.  The  North 
American  Indians  have  their  happy  hunting-grounda 
The  Mexicans  and  Pemvians  have  their  paradise. 
Wherever  man  has  existed,  he  has  existed  with  an 
appetite  for  a  future  life  and  a  belief  in  an  hereafter. 

Apart  from  Christianity,  the  wisest  of  men  have 
believed  in  a  future  life  on  grounds  of  pure  reason. 
That  which  Lucretius  and  Dr.'  Biichner  deny  has 
been  believed  and  taught  by  Socrates,  by  Plato,  by 
Aristotle,  by  Cicero,  by  Tacitus. 

But  Christianity  does  not  convince  us  of  immor- 
tality by  any  process  of  argument ;  it  makes  us  be- 
lieve in  a  future  life  by  quickening  all  the  immortal 
powers  of  the  soul.  It  makes  us  live  in  the  immor- 
tal part,  and  not  the  mortal  part,  of  our  being  ;  in  the 
spirit,  not  in  the  flesh.  This  is  the  real  argument 
for  a  future  life,  —  that  we  are  aliv^e  now.  The  more 
of  present  life  we  have,  the  more  shall  we  believe  in 
the  future. 

If  the  soul  of  man  is  brutal,  animal,  material,  if 


198  COMMON-SENSE  IN  RELIGION. 

it  is  occupied  only  with  the  outward  world  and  things 
of  sense,  then  it  ceases  to  believe  in  immortality; 
it  does  not  seem  to  itself  to  be  immortal.  But  when 
it  rises  into  the  realm  of  ideas,  when  it  com- 
munes with  God,  when  it  looks  upward  and  not 
downward,  when  it  is  full  of  faith,  hope,  love,  then 
it  feels  in  itself  that  it  cannot  die,  that  death  has 
no  dominion  over  it.  And  this  is  the  strongest  of 
all  proofs,  —  that  to  believe  otherwise  in  our  high- 
est moods  is  impossible. 

But  beside  the  instinct  of  immortality,  there  are 
arguments  for  immortality  very  good  in  their  place. 
We  are  made  with  reason,  no  less  than  with  instinct. 
We  are  made  to  think,  as  well  as  to  believe  and  feel. 
Consequently,  the  instinct  of  immortality  needs  some- 
times to  be  re-enforced  by  arguments  for  immortal- 
ity. Our  faith  in  a  future  life  does  not  rest  on  those 
arguments,  any  more  than  the  walls  of  a  great  cathe- 
dral rest  on  its  outside  buttresses.  The  walls  rest 
on  their  massive  foundations,  out  of  sight,  hidden 
below  the  ground;  but  the  buttresses  against  the 
walls  are  there  to  resist  the  thrust  of  the  roof  So 
our  faith  in  immortality  rests  on  the  instinct  of  life 
which  God  has  given  us ;  but  arguments  are  but- 
tresses  to  resist  the  thrust  of  doubts,  of  counter-argu- 
ments, of  sceptical  suggestions. 


CONCERNING   THE   FUTURE   LIFE.  199 

At  the  present  time  there  are  many  persons  who 
disparage  the  arguments  for  immortality,  and,  indeed, 
seem  to  think  it  rather  selfish  in  us  to  wish  to  live 
hereafter.  They  argue  that  we  have  nothing  to  do 
with  the  future  life,  but  only  with  the  present.  In  a 
sense,  this  is  true.  But  it  is  idle  to  suppose  that 
men's  thoughts  can  be  shut  wholly  within  the  boun- 
daries of  the  present  life.  We  are  too  great  for  that, 
small  as  we  are.  We  must  sometimes  think  about 
an  hereafter ;  and  when  we  think  about  it,  we  need 
reasons  and  arguments  for  believing  or  not  believ- 
ing in  it.  • 

Now,  the  arguments  for  a  future  life  are  as  old  as 
human  thought.  It  is  not  likely  that  any  new  ones 
will  be  invented  hereafter.  There  is,  for  example, 
the  metaphysical  argument,  based  on  the  immateri- 
ality of  the  soul.  Consciousness  teaches  that  the 
soul  is  one ;  not  made  up  of  parts,  like  the  body.  It 
is  indivisible.  It  is  not  one  part  of  the  soul  which 
thinks,  and  another  which  feels,  and  another  which 
loves,  fears,  argues,  hopes,  or  hates.  We  say  "  I  love," 
"  I  think,"  "  I  remember,"  "  I  choose,"  "  I  suffer,"  "  I 
enjoy,"  "  I  intend  to  do  this  or  that."  It  is  one  and 
the  same  person  which  is  active  or  passive  in  all 
these  separate  states  of  consciousness. 

But  the  body  is  not  a  unit.     All  matter  is  divisi- 


200  COMMON-SENSE   IN    RELIGION. 

ble,  it  is  in  parts ;  and  one  part  is  not  another  part. 
The  man  himself,  the  personal  thinking  being,  is  not 
composed  of  parts ;  therefore  is  not  divisible,  there- 
fore is  not  material. 

Let  us  suppose  that  I  have  a  diseased  nerve  in 
some  extremity  of  my  body,  which  causes  me  great 
pain.  I  say,  "  I  suffer  from  the  pain  in  my  foot." 
But  now  let  the  nerve  be  tied  up  between  the  brain- 
centre  and  the  foot.  The  disease  remains  as  before 
in  the  foot;  but  the  pain  which  I  felt  I  no  longer 
feel.  This  shows  that  though  the  disease  was  in  the 
foot,  the  pain  was  in  the  soul.  'Do  you  say.  It  was 
perhaps  in  the  brain  ?  But  the  brain  is,  by  supposi- 
tion, not  diseased ;  and  if  the  brain  were  diseased,  the 
pain  would  continue.  It  is  not,  then,  the  body  which 
suffers  pain,  but  the  soul.  It  is  not  the  bodily  eye 
which  sees,  but  the  soul  which  sees  by  means  of  it. 
It  is  one  and  the  same  monad  which  touches,  tastes, 
smells,  sees,  hears,  and  which  thinks,  feels,  and  acts. 
Now,  this  argument  is  only  a  buttress,  meant  to  resist 
the  thrust  of  the  doubt  arising  from  the  fact  that  at 
death  the  body  is  dissolved.  Why  not  the  soul  too, 
we  say  ?  Because  the  body  is  composed  of  parts,  and 
so  is  capable  of  dissolution.  The  soul  is  different, 
essentially  different.  It  is  not  composed  of  parts. 
There  is,  then,  no  reason  to  think  that  it  will  be  dis- 
solved because  the  body  is  dissolved. 


CONCERNING   THE  FUTUEE  LIFE.  201 

Another  argument  for  immortality  is  called  by 
metaphysicians  the  teleologic.  This  means  that  man 
is  adapted  by  his  nature  to  go  forward  and  live  here- 
after. The  law  of  our  mind  is  that,  when  we  see 
adaptation,  we  infer  design.  When  we  see  that  grass 
is  adapted  to  be  eaten  by  cattle,  and  that  the  taste 
and  stomach  of  cattle  are  adapted  to  grass,  we  then 
infer  that  they  were  designed  for  each  other.  When 
we  see  that  the  eyes  are  adapted  to  light,  we  infer 
design.  This  seems  to  be  one  of  the  primitive  laws 
of  thought ;  w^e  cannot  go  behind  it.  But  the  soul  of 
man  is  adapted  for  perpetual  progi-ess.  He  goes  on 
till  he  dies.  He  dies  full  of  love,  knowledge,  hope. 
If  man  be  made  adapted  to  future  progress  after 
death ;  if  he  be  adapted  to  greater  love,  knowledge, 
accomplishment,  than  he  attains  to  in  this  life,  —  then 
it  is  natural  to  believe  that  the  Creator  intended  him 
for  it. 

It  has  been  said  that  the  universal  expectation  of 
an  hereafter  is  merely  a  fond  imagination  born  from 
the  love  of  existence,  and  that  the  wish  is  father  to 
the  thought ;  but  this  only  puts  the  same  argument 
into  another  form.  Instead  of  saying  that  all  men's 
minds  are  made  to  believe  in  an  hereafter,  w^e  say 
that  all  men's  hearts  are  made  to  desire  an  hereafter. 
But  we  find  nowhere  in  nature  any  creatures  made 

9* 


202  COMMON-SENSE   IN   RELIGION. 

with  an  instinctive  desire  without  the  appropriate 
food  for  that  desire  being  provided.  Each  creature 
is  born  with  a  desire  for  some  food,  and  for  each 
creature  the  food  he  desires  has  been  created.  The 
bird  loves  to  fly,  the  fish  to  swim,  the  mole  to  bur- 
row in  the  ground.  Some  creatures  are  adapted  to 
live  on  the  earth  or  in  it,  some  are  adapted  to  the 
water,  others  to  the  air;  and  air  has  been  made  for 
the  bird,  water  for  the  fish,  earth  for  the  mole.  The 
senses  enjoy  light,  color,  form,  melodious  sounds, 
agreeable  odors,  pleasant  tastes ;  and  all  these  have 
been  provided.  If  man  has  a  capacity  for  a  con- 
tinued existence,  and  no  continued  existence  has 
been  provided  for  him,  this  is  the  only  exception 
we  know  to  the 'rule  that  every  power  planted  in  the 
nature  of  God's  creatures  has  its  appropriate  sphere 
already  designed  and  prepared  for  it  in  the  very 
structure  of  the  universe ;  for  so  has  God  loved  his 
creatures  from  before  the  foundation  of  the  world. 
This  longing  for  continued  existence  shows  that  the 
powers  of  the  soul  are  not  exhausted  when  those  of 
the  body  are  worn  out.  It  also  furnishes  another  ar- 
gument to  prove  that  the  visible  material  body  is  not 
the  souL  There  is  something  in  us  beside  these 
material  particles,  which  come  and  go,  which  swim 
in  the  blood  and  enter  with  the  breath.     Beside  the 


CONCERNING  THE  FUTURE  LIFE.  203 

body,  which  the  senses  perceive,  there  is  that  prin- 
ciple, that  vital  force,  which  organizes  the  body,  co- 
ordinates its  parts,  makes  unity  out  of  its  variety. 
The  body,  we  repeat,  is  multiform,  the  soul  uniform. 
The  body  which  we  perceive  by  the  senses  is  made 
up  of  parts,  of  separate  organs.  But  the  soul,  which 
we  know  through  our  consciousness,  is  a  unit. 

That  the  soul  is  different  from  the  body  has  in  all 
times  and  lands  been  the  dictate  of  common-sense. 
Philosophers  may  prove,  to  their  own  satisfaction, 
that  there  is  no  such  thing  as  soul,  but  only  body ; 
other  philosophers  may  prove,  with  equal  force,  that 
there  is  no  such  thing  as  body,  but  only  soul.  The 
common-sense  of  the  race  accepts  neither  conclusion, 
but  declares  that  man  is  a  soul  dwelling  in  a  body, 
and  that,  when  the  body  is  dissolved  by  death,  the 
soul  continues  to  exist  somewhere,  somehow. 

The  belief  in  ghosts  has  been  almost  universal  in 
all  ages.  Ghosts  appear  in  the  Bible,  in  Homer,  in 
Virgil,  in  Dante,  in  all  popular  literature,  among  all 
savage  and  all  civilized  nations.  Now,  of  two  things, 
one:  either  these  stories  are  true,  and  then  they 
prove  that  the  soul  does  not  die  with  the  body ;  or 
else  they  are  false,  and  then  they  prove  the  universal 
belief  that  the  soul  does  not  die  with  the  body. 
This  belief  must  be  very  strong,  since  without  facts, 


204  COMMON-SENSE  IN   RELIGION. 

*  and  in  spite  of  facts,  it  continues  to  maintain  itself 
age  after  age.  Such  a  belief  is  a  proof  of  its  own 
truth,  for  human  nature  was  not  made  to  believe 
so  persistently  in  such  a  lie.  Universal  convictions 
must  have  their  roots  in  some  basis  of  reality. 

But  this  faith  in  an  hereafter,  though  universal,  is 
a  matter  of  degrees.  Some  believe  more  and  some 
less,  according  to  constitution,  temperament,  and 
habit  of  mind.  Some  have  little  hope  in  their  con- 
stitution, and  little  sense  of  spiritual  existence; 
they  are  hke  doubting  Thomas,  and  find  it  hard  to 
believe.  They  want  the  evidence  of  facts.  If  spirit- 
rapping  be  true,  and  if  ghosts  actually  revisit  the 
glimpses  of  the  moon,  —  too  often,  to  make  night  hid- 
eous with  their  foolish  talk,  —  it  must  be  for  the  bene- 
fit of  these  persons,  who  are  not  unwilling  to  believe, 
but  only  unable  to  do  so.  It  is  difficult  to  understand 
why  we  should  be  any  more  strongly  convinced  of  a 
future  life  if  all  the  tables  in  Boston  should  fly  up 
into  the  air  to  demonstrate  it.  But  when  Thomas 
said  he  could  not  believe  unless  he  could  put  his  fin- 
gers into  the  print  of  the  nails,  Jesus  allowed  him  to 
do  so.  If  others  need  this  sort  of  evidence,  let  us  be 
glad  that  they  can  have  it.  I,  for  one,  will  not  deny 
its  possibility  or  its  reality. 

Not  only  is  the  power  of  believing  in  a  future  life 


CONCERNING   THE   FUTUKE  LIFE.  205 

different  in  different  individuals,  but  it  grows 
stronger  or  weaker  by  exercise,  like  other  powers. 
The  more  we  live  in  spiritual  things,  in  the  love 
of  truth,  justice,  and  goodness,  the  more  real  does 
spirit  become  to  us. 

Jesus  gives  us  confidence  in  God,  and  so  inspires 
us  with  faith  in  immortality.  He  says,  "In  my 
Father's  house  are  many  mansions ;  if  it  were  not  so, 
I  would  have  told  you.  I  go  to  prepare  a  place  for 
you." 

He  raises  us  above  the  limitations  of  now  and  here, 
he  makes  us  commune  with  God,  who  is  always  and 
everywhere,  and  so  lifts  us  up  into  a  sense  of  immor- 
tal life. 

When  we  once  believe  that  God  cares  for  us,  that 
we  have  value  hi  his  eyes,  then  we  are  free  from  the 
fear  of  death.  We  can  trust  ourselves  entirely  to 
him.  He  is  a  faithful  Creator.  We  can  say,  "  Into 
thy  hands,  0  Lord,  I  commit  my  spirit,"  sure  that 
in  his  hands  our  spirit  shall  be  always  safe. 

When  we  once  believe  in  God,  the  analogies  of 
this  world  strengthen  our  faith  in  another.  See  the 
boundless  provision  made  for  all  God's  creatures 
here!  Every  little  creature  has  its  wants  provided 
for  beforehand.  Some  are  made  with  the  instinct 
of  flying ;  they  enjoy  movement  in  the  air,  and  by  a 


206  COMMON-SENSE  IN   RELIGION. 

wonderful  contrivance,  which  all  the  skill  and  inge- 
nuity of  science  fails  to  equal,  the  little  insect  will 
keep  on  the  wing  hour  after  hour  without  fatigue. 
The  bird  will  fly  all  day  at  the  rate  of  a  mile  a  min- 
ute, journeying  to  his  winter  or  his  summer  home. 
The  fish  enjoys  life  in  the  cold  depths  of  the  sea. 
The  mole  and  the  worm  enjoy  life  digging  in  the 
earth.  It  is  said  by  some  physical  philosophers  that 
all  movements  on  the  earth,  movements  of  air,  of 
water,  of  growth,  of  decay,  come  from  the  influence 
of  the  sun.  But  the  sun  of  the  animated  creation  is 
enjoyment  in  the  exercise  of  their  faculties.  Their 
sunshine  is  in  their  delight  in  doing  what  they  are 
made  capable  of  doing ;  and  all  creatures  have  their 
sphere  provided  for  them,  —  air,  earth,  water.  The 
bee  is  made  to  seek  for  honey,  and  honey  has  been 
provided  for  it.  The  whale  was  made  to  nourish  his 
immense  body  with  enormous  quantities  of  minute 
vegetables  and  animals,  and  these  have  been  pro- 
vided for  him.  And  these  little  marine  insects  have 
their  homes  too,  and  food-  and  occupation  and  enjoy- 
ments. No  doubt  the  Deity  himself  takes  pleasure 
in  the  universal  happiness  of  his  creatures;  and 
though  we  do  not  understand  now  the  uses  of  pain, 
we  shall  probably  one  day  see  that  it  is  a  part  of 
universal  education,  and  that  all  present  suffering 


CONCERNING   THE  FUTURE  LIFE.  207 

is  the  preparation  for  a  higher  capability  of  future 
joy.  If  we  believe  in  the  goodness  of  God,  pain  is 
an  argument  for  immortality.  We  could  live  here 
without  it,  if  this  life  were  all  So  it  must  be  sent 
as  a  discipline  beforehand  for  something  beyond ;  as 
the  child  is  made  to  study  books  which  are  of  no 
present  use  to  him,  but  the  knowledge  of  which  will 
be  of  use  hereafter. 

Insoluble  problems  are  also  evidence  of  immor- 
tality. We  are  all,  in  our  mind  and  our  life,  brought 
face  to  face  with  questions  to  which  no  sufficient 
answer  can  here  be  found.  Every  generation  of  men 
€omes  in  turn  to  look  at  these  paradoxes,  these  anti- 
nomies of  tlie  reason.  How  can  an  infinite  being 
create  a  finite  world  ?  What  is  the  origin  of  evil  ? 
What  is  the  relation  between  freedom  and  law,  lib- 
erty in  man  and  the  providence  of  God?  We  are 
obliged  by  the  law  of  our  thought  to  ask  these 
questions,  and  are  unable  to  answer  them.  Do  they 
not  then  vindicate  an  hereafter,  where  the  solution 
will  be  found  ?  Are  they  not  like  the  sentence 
written  at  the  foot  of  an  unfinished  story,  —  "  To  be 
continued  in  our  next "  ? 

What  God  has  done  for  his  creatures  in  this 
world  he  wiU  do  for  them  hereafter.  We  can  trust 
him  entirely  then  as  here.      He  has  made  us  with 


208  COMMON-SENSE  IN   RELIGION. 

longings  for  a  continued  existence ;  he  has  made  the 
soul  so  that  it  does  not  grow  old  and  decay  with  the 
body,  but  becomes  more  rich  in  knowledge^  in  love, 
in  aspiration,  in  hope,  as  the  body  sinks  away  in 
disease.  How  often  have  we  seen  the  soul  strug- 
gling upward  while  the  body  was  sinking  down- 
ward ;  the  body  dying,  the  soul  growing  more  alive ! 
How  often  do  men  and  women  mellow  and  sweeten 
as  they  advance  in  years,  rising  to  larger  views,  more 
liberal  aims !  How  often,  while  the  body  grows 
older,  does  the  spirit  seem  to  grow  younger,  fresher, 
more  active !  Goethe  said  of  Schiller,  "  He  went 
on,  and  on,  and  on,  for  thirty-eight  years,  never  rest- 
ing, never  ceasing  from  new  activity  and  fresh 
accomplishments."  Meantime,  the  body  of  Schiller 
was  steadily  decaying. 

I  often  saw  Dr.  Channing  in  his  last  years.  He 
never  was  so  full  of  great  thoughts  and  high  pur- 
poses as  then.  Death,  which  already  seemed  to 
have  taken  possession  of  the  feeble  body,  had  no 
dominion  over  that  ascending  soul.  I  once  saw,  on 
a  seal,  the  device  of  a  sky-rocket,  with  the  motto, 
"  Dum  vivo  volo,"  "  While  I  live,  I  ascend."  Such 
was  the  spirit  of  Channing,  of  Schiller,  of  John 
Quincy  Adams,  of  a  great  multitude  of  famous  men, 
and  men  not  famous,  who  continue  to  ascend  as  long 
as  they  live. 


CONCERNING  THE   FUTURE   LIFE.  209 

If  the  souls  of  our  friends  do  not  live  after  death, 
we  should  not,  I  think,  be  made  to  mourn  over  them 
as  we  do,  to  carry  them  in  our  hearts  forever.  We 
should  be  made  to  lay  them  aside,  as  we  throw  away 
a  worn-out  garment  or  tool,  thinking  no  more  of  it. 
Our  undying  affections  are  proofs  of  the  immortality 
of  the  soul. 

I  have  a  friend,  perhaps,  whom  1  did  not  know  a 
few  years  since,  or  even  a  few  months  ago.  Between 
his  soul  and  mine  there  springs  up  a  strong  com- 
munion of  thought,  aim,  and  life.  He  goes  away 
into  the  other  world,  and  not  one  link  of  that  chain 
of  love  is  weakened.  Year  after  year  passes  away, 
and  I  see  him  still  by  my  side.  I  hear  his  voice,  I 
look  into  his  eyes,  I  feel  his  presence  and  influence. 
And  will  you  make  me  believe  that  this  soul  of  fire 
died  with  the  body,  —  this  soul,  which  continues  thus 
to  mould  and  influence  me  years  after  he  has  passed 
into  the  unseen  world  ?  That  opinion  requires  more 
credulity  than  I  am  capable  of. 

It  is  a  curious  fact,  that  while,  on  the  one  hand, 
the  men  addicted  to  physical  science  and  material 
studies  have  many  of  them  lost  their  faith  in  soul, 
God,  and  immortality,  and  can  believe  only  in  force 
and  matter,  on  the  other  hand  there  has  sprung  up 
a  large  body  of  believers  who  are  confident  that  they 


210  COMMON-SENSE  IN  RELIGION. 

have  physical  and  material  evidence  that  the  soul 
survives  the  body.  I  have  devoted  some  attention 
to  modern  Spiritualism,  and  I  find  it  not  very  attrac- 
tive or  very  interesting.  The  messages  purporting  to 
come  from  the  other  world  are  rather  weak  senti- 
mentalism,  and  do  not  seem  to  need  that  any  ghost 
should  come  from  the  dead  to  communicate  them. 
Nevertheless,  the  fact  remains,  that  some  millions  of 
persons,  of  all  characters,  of  all  sorts  of  intellect, — 
poetic,  prosaic,  imaginative,  commonplace, — are  firmly 
convinced  that  they  have  seen  and  heard  spirits  from 
the  other  world.  Since  I  believe  in  the  continued 
existence  of  spirits  after  death,  I  have  no  reason  to 
deny,  beforehand,  such  facts.  I  think  it  highly 
probable  that  such  communications  may  actually 
take  place,  though  there  seems  to  be  some  law  which 
prevents  any  very  effectual  or  useful  intercourse. 
The  net  gain  thus  far  seems  to  be,  not  that  we  have 
much  more  light  on  religion,  morality,  the  soul,  or 
God,  than  we  had  before,  but  that  many  persons  who 
were  before  unable  to  believe  in  spirit  or  an  here- 
after now  believe  in  both.  They  are  persons  who 
need  physical  evidence  of  spiritual  things,  and  per- 
haps Divine  Providence,  in  its  infinite  bounty,  has 
seen  fit  to  grant  it  to  them,  and  so  to  counteract  by 
physical  and  material  evidence  the  decay  of  faith 


CONCERNING  THE   FUTURE  LIFE.  211 

which  has  come  from  relying  too  exclusively  on 
physical  observation. 

But,  after  all,  spiritual  things  are  spiritually  dis- 
cerned. All  the  rappings  and  table-tippings  possible 
will  not  produce  a  Living  conviction  of  the  immor- 
tality of  the  souL  Jesus  says,  "If  they  hear  not 
Moses  and  the  Prophets,  neither  will  they  be  per- 
suaded though  one  rise  from  the  dead."  The  mate- 
rialistic philosopher  cannot  see  the  kingdom  of  God ; 
it  is  necessarily  foolishness  to  him.  It  is  only  by 
living  with  God,  living  from  a  sense  of  duty,  living  a 
life  of  love  and  generous  affection,  living  an  immor- 
tal life  here,  that  we  gain  any  lasting  and  stable 
faith  in  immortality. 

Spiritism,  or  the  doctrine  of  ghostly  visitors,  is,  then, 
only  a  buttress,  good  to  resist  the  thrust  of  material 
arguments  against  immortality.  It  is  not  a  foun- 
dation on  which  to  build  our  faith. 

In  a  different  way  is  Jesus  the  resurrection  and 
the  life.  His  influence  makes  us  live  in  the  things 
which  are  above.  While  we  commune  with  him, 
we  rise  with  him  into  that  sphere  of  thought  and 
feeling  over  which  death  has  no  power,  and  where 
the  fear  of  death  is  conquered.  Then  we  have 
no  doubt  about  the  immortality  of  others  or  about 
our  own,  no  doubt  as  to  the  ascent  of  man  after 


212  COMMON-SENSE  IN   RELIGION. 

death  into  a  higher  existence,  no  doubt  concerning 
the  protecting  care  and  love  of  God, 

So,  when  life's  sweet  journey  ends, 
Soul  and  body  part  like  friends  ; 
No  quarrels,  murmurs,  no  delay,  — 
A  kiss,  a  sigh,  and  so  away. 


X. 


THE  NATURE  OF  OUR  CONDITION  HERE- 
AFTER. 


THE  NATURE  OF  OUR  CONDITION 
HEREAFTER. 

Assuming  the  existence  of  God  and  of  a  future 
life,  we  ask,  Wliat  are  the  probable  conditions  of  that 
existence  ?  We  have  only  two  sources  of  informa- 
tion :  one  must  be  found  in  the  analogies  of  this  life> 
the  other  in  the  teachings  of  inspired  men. 

Since  this  world  and  the  world  to  come  both  pro- 
ceed from  the  same  Creator,  and  since  he  is  the  same 
always,  we  may  properly  conjecture  what  he  will  do 
for  us  hereafter  from  what  he  does  for  us  here.  Our 
reason  teaches  that  the  Divine  laws  are  unchanging 
and  universal;  founded  on  no  caprice  of  will,  but 
rooted  deeply  in  the  nature  of  things.  This  world 
is  a  revelation  of  God's  character,  and  his  char- 
acter remains  the  same  forever.  The  next  world 
must  reveal  the  same  character ;  and  no  manifesta- 
tions of  God  there  can  contradict,  though  they  may 
complete,  his  manifestations  here.  Whatever  there 
is  in  that  world  new  and  different,  it  must  be  in  es- 
sential harmony  with  all  in  this. 


216  COMMON-SENSE  IN  KELIGION. 

First,  then,  we  may  assume  that  space  and  time 
will  continue,  as  the  necessary  conditions  of  the  ex- 
istence of  finite  things  and  the  taking  place  of  finite 
events.  By  means  of  space,  things  are  kept  apart 
and  distinct ;  by  means  of  time,  events  are  kept 
apart  and  distinct.  As  long  as  anything  finite  con- 
tinues, it  must  be  framed  in  space  and  time.  Take 
away  space  and  time,  and  all  things  would  rush  to- 
gether into  the  infinite  and  eternal.  A  universe,  as 
distinct  from  God,  requires  the  assumption  of  space 
and  time ;  and  we  may  assume  their  continuance 
hereafter,  either  as  realities  or  as  necessary  forms  of 
thought,  —  it  does  not  matter  which. 

If  space  and  time  continue,  then  we  shall  be  some- 
where, and  not  everywhere,  in  some  place,  and  not 
in  all  places,  just  as  we  are  now.  People  sometimes 
imagine  that,  after  death,  we  shall  have  no  more 
locality,  but  be  in  all  places  at  once.  But  we  cannot 
think  that  we,  or  any  being,  except  God,  will  ever  be 
omnipresent.  That  is  an  attribute  of  the  Infinite 
Being,  not  of  finite  beings.  As  finite  beings  we  shall 
be  somewhere,  and  not  everywhere..  We  do  not 
mean  by  this  to  say  that  we  shall  necessarily  be  tied 
to  one  place,  or  be  unable  to  move  from  one  to  an- 
other. We  see  a  progress  and  ascent  in  this  respect 
here.     Trees  are  rooted  to  the  soil ;  some  animals  are 


NATURE  OF  OUR  CONDITION  HEREAFTER.   217 

fastened  to  certain  localities.  Man  is  limited  to  this 
one  planet,  Earth,  but  can  come  and  go  on  all  its  sur- 
face. By  means  of  electricity  and  steam  he  is  grad- 
ually making  liimself  at  home  in  all  parts  of  the 
globe.  Hereafter,  in  the  next  state,  he  may  be  able 
to  move  with  a  thought  from  place  to  place,  to  be 
in  a  moment  where  he  wishes  to  be.  He  may  be 
able  to  think  himself  from  the  Sun  to  Jupiter  or  Sat- 
urn. But  he  must  be  in  some  place  at  each  moment, 
not  in  all  places. 

So  also  it  would  seem  that  he  must  be  in  some 
point  of  time  at  each  moment.  In  this  life  the 
stream  of  time  carries  us  all  forward  together ;  so,  I 
conceive,  it  will  be  in  the  future.  We  can,  indeed, 
by  a  wonderful  power  of  memory  and  of  imagination, 
go  backward  and  forward,  and  then  the  past  or  the 
future  rises  before  us.  So,  hereafter,  we  may  be  able 
more  wonderfully  still  to  live  in  past  or  in  future 
time,  be  present  in  spirit  at  the  creation  of  worlds,  be 
present  and  look  on  at  the  most  interesting  moments 
of  human  history.  We  may  be  able,  by  an  act  of 
will,  to  transport  ourselves  backward  a  thousand 
years,  and  go  into  a  village  of  Europe  in  the  ninth 
century,  and  see  the  actual  condition  of  knights  and 
serfs.  We  may  be  able  to  assist  at  the  Crusades,  or 
to  see   Mohammed  in   his   cave,  when  flying  from 

10 


218  COMMON-SENSE   IN   RELIGION. 

Mecca.  We  may  be  able  to  go  back  and  stand  by 
the  cross,  and  look  in  the  face  of  Jesus,  and  hear 
with  our  own  ears  his  blessed  words  of  forgiveness ; 
or,  in  the  early  Easter  morning,  see  him  when  he 
comes  from  the  tomb.  We  may  be  able  to  go  far- 
ther back  still,  —  to  the  Egyptian,  Persian,  Hindoo 
civilizations ;  listen  to  Confucius  talking  with  his  dis- 
ciples, visit  Abraham  in  his  tent,  see  what  the  deluge 
of  Noah  really  was,  and  learn  whether  there  was  one 
Adam  or  many;  for  this  would,  after  all,  be  only  an 
extension  or  increased  degree  of  powers  we  already 
possess,  and  would  not  be  more  wonderful,  essen- 
tially, than  any  act  of  memory.  To  be  able  to  look 
at  the  past  is,  indeed,  not  more  strange  than  to  be 
able  to  see  the  present. 

Here  let  us  consider  that,  according  to  analogy,  our 
entrance  into  the  other  world  out  of  this  will  not  be 
abrupt  or  startling.  Think  how  gently  we  are  intro- 
duced into  this  life !  Thousands  and  tens  of  thou- 
sands of  human  beings  find  themselves  existing  in 
this  wonderful  universe,  and  are  not  surprised  at  it. 
They  have  come  from  non-existence  into  existence, 
and  take  it  as  a  matter  of  course.  No  subsequent 
change  that  oan  befall  any  of  us  can  be  as  amazing 
as  this  change  from  nothing  to  sonaething.  If  I 
can  bear  this  without  wonder,  methinks  I  can  bear 


NATURE  OF  OUR  CONDITION   HEREAFTER.      219 

anything.  The  greatest  of  all  wonders  is,  that  we  do 
not  wonder  at  beginning  to  be.  We  are  so  immersed 
in  outward,  visible  objects,  so  full  of  active  life,  that 
we  cannot  stop  to  be  astonished.  By  what  wonder- 
ful provision  is  it  that  God  softly  rocks  us  into  being, 
tenderly  leads  over  this  terrific  and  astounding  fact 
of  our  passage  from  nonentity  into  actual  existence  ? 
We  may  be  sure,  at  all  events,  since  we  have  not 
been  astonished  by  this,  nothing  will  ever  be  too 
startling.  No  change  from  something  to  something 
else  can  ever  be  so  extraordinary  as  the  change  from 
nothing  to  something. 

But  we  must  not  conceive  of  ourselves  as  lonely, 
isolated  beings  hereafter,  not  belonging  anywhere. 
We  must  observe  that  the  law  of  progress  here,  while 
it  gives  more  freedom  on  one  side,  gives  more  perma- 
nence on  the  other.  Man  has  greater  freedom  of 
movement  than  the  lower  animals ;  he  can  come  and 
go  as  they  cannot.  But  he  also  has  more  of  a  home 
than  they  have.  They  have  their  nest,  their  hole, 
their  companions ;  but  he  has  his  house,  his  family, 
his  relations,  friends,  companions,  his  place  of  work, 
his  sphere  of  activity  and  love.  Now  it  is  probable, 
frotn  analogy,  that  this  will  be  the  case  hereafter. 
So  Jesus  intimates :  "  In  my  Father's  house  are 
many  mansions  :  if  it  were  not  so,  I  would  have  told 


220  COMMON-SENSE  IN   RELIGION. 

you.  I  go  to  prepare  a  place  for  you."  Jesus  seems 
to  have  gone  to  prepare  a  congenial  place,  a  sympa- 
thetic society ;  to  call  together  in  one  Divine  man- 
sion elect  spirits  who  would  be  ready  to  receive  his 
disciples  when  they  should  enter  that  world,  so  that 
when  they  passed  in  they  would  be  welcomed  at  once 
into  a  blessed  company  of  friends  assembled  to  re- 
ceive them. 

Every  species  of  living  thing  which  enters  this 
world  enters  a  home  prepared  for  it  beforehand  by 
the  providence  of  God.  Fishes  are  born  in  water, 
where  they  find  their  food  ready  for  them,  and  the  ele- 
ment suited  to  their  needs.  Little  birds  find  them- 
selves in  a  nest,  with  parent  birds  to  bring  them  their 
worms  and  cherries.  The  tiger's  whelp,  when  it  ar- 
rives, finds  a  mother  as  loving  and  as  careful  as  if  sho 
were  the  gentlest  of  all  tender  creatures.  Little  chil- 
dren born  in  cellars  have  at  first  as  soft  a  bosom  to 
lean  on,  as  careful  arms  to  hold  them,  as  sweet  food 
for  their  lips,  as  the  Spanish  Infanta  or  the  French 
Dauphin.  The  coral  insect,  coming  into  the  world  in 
a  tropical  sea,  finds  the  necessary  conditions  of  his 
little  life  arranged  for  him,  —  the  water  tempered  to 
the  right  degree  of  warmth,  and  his  food  by  his  side. 

And  if  God  makes  this  preparation  for  every  ani- 
mal and  plant  born  into  this  world,  will  he  not  have 


NATURE  OF  OUR  CONDITION  HEREAFTER.      221 

our  homes  prepared  for  us,  so  that  we  shall  not  enter 
into  a  strange  or  lonely  world  hereafter?  Let  us 
look  forward  to  a  glad  awakening  in  the  other  world. 
Let  us  expect  to  find  ourselves  received  into  a  home 
there,  among  groups  of  friends,  wiser,  nobler  than 
ourselves,  so  that  among  them  we  shall  be  once  more 
like  little  children,  to  be  guided,  taught,  led,  tenderly 
cared  for.  As  we  open  our  eyes  in  the  new  life,  we 
shall  look  into  answering  eyes  of  gracious  tenderness 
and  heavenly  radiance.  Soft  voices  wiU  murmur 
welcome.  As  mothers  here  purr  and  coo  and  sing 
cradle-songs  to  their  infants,  so  the  first  sounds 
which  enter  our  ears  hereafter  may  be  the  same 
sweet  voices  of  musical  love.  There  will  be  nothing 
abrupt,  strange,  or  startling.  As  we  find  ourselves 
in  this  world  without  any  amazement,  and  take  it  as 
a  matter  of  course  that  we  should  be  here,  so  we 
^^^^^shailrsot  be  astonished  at  arriving  at  the  next  stage 
^       of  being. 

Our  homes  hereafter  will  probably  be  a  step  in 
advance  of  our  homes  here  in  being  adapted  more 
perfectly  to  our  higher  wants.  Many  families  in  this 
life,  while  full  of  natural  affection,  do  not  meet  in 
any  full  affinity  or  high  communion.  They  do  not 
always  understand  each  other.  With  the  most  con- 
scientious purposes,  they  are  often  unjust   to  each 


^222  COMMON-SENSE  IN   RELIGION. 

other.  With  the  best  intentions,  they  often  fail  of 
comprehending  each  other's  real  motives.  Thus  there 
may  be  perpetual  friction,  —  the  sense  of  hindrance 
in  one's  home,  and  not  help.  These  are  the  tragedies 
of  life,  —  persons  who  are  brought  together  by  birth, 
by  habit,  and  by  natural  affection,  who  yet  do  not 
meet  intimately,  who  have  no  real  intimacy  of  mind 
or  heart.  Perhaps  the  homes  hereafter  will  be  ar- 
ranged according  to  deeper  affinities  than  these. 
Those  who  belong  to  each  other  will  come  together. 
Then  each  will  contribute  to  the  common  peace  and 
progress,  and  there  will  be  that  real  communion 
which  consists  in  perfect  sympathy  and  mutual  un- 
derstanding. 

Nor  need  the  old  relations  cease  when  these  new 
ones  begin ;  for  these  came  from  a  deep  root.  All 
love  is  of  God,  ajid  will  endure.  We  need  not  fear 
that  our  friend  whom  we  have  loved  so  much  here 
will  leave  us  there  for  some  higher  society  with 
which  he  has  more  affinity.  We  sometimes  hear 
this  fear  expressed,  that  our  friends  may  have  gone 
up  so  far  as  to  have  passed  quite  away  from  our 
reach.  But  can  we  fail  to  see  that  it  is  the  nature 
of  Christian  love  to  be  able  to  come  down  in  deeper 
sympathy  with  all  below,  as  it  ascends  in  fulness  of 
life  to  loftier  attainment  above  ?    Jesus  Christ,  the 


NATURE  OF  OUR  CONDITION  HEREAFTER.   223 

loftiest  of  all  souls  ever  seen  on  earth,  —  with  whom 
did  he  commune,  whom  did  he  love,  whose  society 
did  he  choose  ?  Babes  in  intellect,  infants  in  virtue, 
publicans  and  fishermen,  Martha,  Mary,  Lazarus. 
Not  many  wise,  not  many  noble,  were  chosen  by 
him,  but  persons  standing  in  the  lowest  plane  of 
spiritual  attainment.  They  were  honest,  unperverted, 
pure  in  heart,  that  was  all.  And  when  he  rose,  and 
ascended  to  his  Father,  did  he  leave  them  behind  ? 
No ;  but  he  said,  "  I  go  away,  and  come  again  to 
you.  I  will  not  leave  you  comfortless.  I  will  come 
again,  and  receive  you  to  myself,  that  where  I  am 
there  ye  may  be  also."  If  the  homes  hereafter  are 
higher  homes  than  these,  they  are  still  made  for  us, 
that  we  may  go  into  them,  and  be  lifted  by  them  to 
a  higher  life. 

It  will  be  observed  that  we  have  assumed,  all 
along,  that  the  future  life  is  an  advance  on  this  one, 
and  an  advance  of  which  we  shall  all  have  the  ad- 
vantage. This  is  the  lesson  of  analogy  and  also  of 
revelation. 

So  in  the  resurrection,  as  everything  else  ascends 
to  a  higher  plane,  our  love  must  ascend  too.  It  will 
be  a  higher,  purer,  deeper,  larger  love.  It  will  be 
less  self-seeking  and  more  generous.  It  will  reach 
out  more  widely,  and  sympathize  with  a  greater  va- 


224  COMMON-SENSE  IN   RELIGION. 

riety  of  God's  creatures.  It  will  go  down  more 
deeply,  to  seek  and  save  the  lost  ones.  It  will  rise 
up  in  a  purer  aspiration  to  God.  But  because  it  does 
all  this,  it  will  not  lose  its  hold  on  its  old  friendships, 
for  it  never  does  that  in  this  world.  To  go  up  spir- 
itually is  not  to  go  away  from  any  one.  To  go  up 
nearer  to  God  is  to  acquire  the  power  of  going  down 
with  him  into  the  lowest  parts  of  his  creation. 
The  perfection  of  God  consists  in  his  power  of  go- 
ing down  into  the  infinitely  small,  as  well  as  up 
into  the  infinitely  great.  Christ  rose  higher  than 
any  other  being,  and  so  was  able  to  sympathize  with 
and  to  love  those  who  are  too  low  down  for  any  one 
else  to  love.  To  separate  one's  self  from  those  below 
is  not  to  go  up  as  Christ  went  up.  Consequently, 
if  our  friends  have  made  great  progress  in  the  other 
world,  and  have  become  far  higher  than  we,  they 
have  acquired  thereby  the  power  and  wish  to  come 
nearer  to  us  in  sympathy  and  help  than  ever  before. 

We  must  not  believe  in  two  places  only  hereafter, 
heaven  and  hell.  It  is  not  likely  that  all  are  to  go 
either  into  perfect  joy  or  unmitigated  sorrow.  This 
is  a  very  crude  and  irrational  notion,  founded  on  the 
literal  interpretation  of  some  phrases  of  Scripture 
which  our  prosaic  theologians  have  not  had  imagina- 
tion  enough   to   understand.      God   has   made    this 


NATURE   OF   OUR   CONDITION   HEREAFTER.      225 

world  infinitely  diversified  with  every  degree  of 
being, —  a  long  scale  of  musical  gradations.  Is  God's 
law  in  this  world  a  law  of  variety,  and  is  his  law  in 
the  other  world  a  law  of  monotony  ?  Has  he  a  mil- 
lion different  conditions  for  his  creatures  here,  and 
only  two  there  ?  Believe  it  not !  The  other  world 
is,  no  doubt,  as  full  of  variety  as  this.  It  has  an 
outward  nature  as  rich  in  air,  earth,  water,  light,  fire, 
plants,  vegetables,  as  this,  our  old  familiar  world; 
only  more  graceful,  more  lovely,  more  various,  more 
sublime,  more  tender.    So,  long  ago,  Milton  wrote  :  — 

"  What  if  earth 
Be  but  the  shadow  of  heaven,  and  things  therein 
Each  to  other  like,  more  than  below  is  thought  ? " 

The  old  theory  was  based  on  the  Parable  of  the 
Sheep  and  the  Goats.  It  was  inferred  that  there  are 
only  two  classes  in  the  other  world,  saints  and  sin- 
ners ;  only  two  places,  heaven  and  hell.  But  while 
each  parable  teaches  some  one  special  truth,  all 
truth  is  not  put  into  each  parable.  The  particu- 
lar truth  taught  by  the  "  sheep  and  goats "  is,  that 
those  who  have  never  heard  of  Jesus  —  the  Gentiles, 
or  heathen — will  be  judged  according  to  their  fidelity 
to  the  law  in  their  hearts,  which  is  a  law  of  univer- 
sal love.     The  essential  difference   between  men  is 

10*  o 


226  COMMON-SENSE  IN   RELIGION. 

that  they  are  selfish  or  unselfish.  This  parable 
declares  that  all  generous,  unselfish  people  are  essen- 
tially Christians,  whether  they  ever  heard  of  Christ 
or  not. 

But  Jesus  says  explicitly,  and  without  a  parable, 
that  there  are  many  different  conditions  in  the  other 
world,  as  in  this.  The  law  of  degrees  prevails  there 
as  here.  If  we  expect  all  to  go  into  one  place  when 
we  go  into  the  other  world,  I  think  we  shall  be  mis- 
taken. There  will  be  a  special  place  for  every  one 
±0  be  born  into  there,  as  there  is  here.  Every  child 
born  into  this  world  comes  into  a  home  of  its  own ; 
has  its  own  father  and  mother,  brothers  and  sisters, 
its  own  nation,  country,  town,  language ;  he  is  born 
in  the  country  or  city,  among  the  mountains  or  by 
the  sea,  into  the  home  of  a  farmer,  a  mechanic,  a 
minister.  One  little  child  is  born  in  Spain,  one  in 
India,  one  in  New  England.  Each  of  us,  as  we  pass 
into  the  other  world,  wiU  go  into  a  particular  home 
there,  suited  to  us,  and  which  we  are  suited  for.  It 
is  said  of  Judas  that  "he  went  to  his  place,"  the 
place  that  suited  him,  the  place  where  he  belonged, 
the  place  where  it  was  best  for  him  to  go.  So  the 
Apostle  Paul  went  to  his  place,  the  place  which 
suited  him,  the  place  where  it  was  best  for  him  to  go. 
All  this  is  not  only  scriptural,  but  reasonable;   so 


NATURE  OF  OUR  CONDITION  HEREAFTER.   227 

reasonable  that  Jesus  seems  to  think  it  almost  un- 
necessary to  tell  us  of  it.  "  In  my  Father's  house 
are  ma7iy  mansions :  if  it  were  not  so,  I  would  have 
told  you." 

We  are  also  told  that  while  a  good  deal  of  what 
we  learn  in  this  life  will  pass  away,  much  will  re^ 
main.  "We  know  in  part,  and  prophecy"  (that  is, 
teach)  "in  part;  but  when  that  which  is  perfect  is 
come,  then  that  which  is  in  part  will  be  done  away.'* 
But  there  are  three  great  elements  of  spiritual  life 
which  remain :  faith,  hope,  and  love. 

The  faith  which  abides  is  not  any  particular 
creed  or  belief;  but  it  is  that  confidence  in  God, 
that  trust  in  universal  law,  in  the  order  of  the  uni- 
verse, in  a  pervading,  providing  intelligence,  in  a 
blessed  fatherly  love,  which  is  at  the  root  of  all  in- 
tellectual activity,  all  intellectual  progress.  This 
faith  is  the  "  substance  of  things  hoped  for,  the 
evidence  of  things  not  seen."  It  is  the  spring  of  all 
thought,  reaching  out  from  the  known  to  the  unknown. 
We  go  into  the  other  world  believing  that  there  is 
there  plenty  to  know,  that  the  laws  of  nature  and 
the  facts  of  nature  are  infinite  and  inexhaustible ; 
and  that  this  faith  is  to  abide  in  us  proves  that  the 
other  world  is  like  this  world  in  its  inexhaustible 
opportunities   for  knowledge.     There,  as  here,  there 


228  COMMON-SENSE   IN   RELIGION. 

will  be  infinite  variety,  boundless  adaptation,  facts  of 
observation  for  the  senses,  beauty  for  the  imagina- 
tion, problems  to  be  studied,  deeper  mysteries  of 
science.  There  will  be  something  corresponding  to 
sunlight,  to  stars  and  moon,  to  ocean  and  mountain,-  to 
forest  and  meadow,  to  summer  and  winter.  This 
little  world  has  not  exhausted  the  creative  power  of 
God.  We  here  see  but  the  border  of  his  works,  and 
listen  to  but  a  faint  whisper  concerning  him. 

Faith  abides,  and  so  also  hope  abides.  And  if  so 
there  is  something  to  hope  for;  that  is,  there  is 
progress  hereafter,  as  well  as  here.  "When  God  puts 
hope  into  the  human  heart,  it  is  a  promise  of  progress. 
When  we  are  told  that  hope  abides,  it  is  a  promise 
of  perpetual  progTess.  To  give  us  hope,  with  nothing 
to  hope  for,  w^ould  be  to  deceive  us.  But  the  hope 
of  something  better  is  the  spring  of  activity.  There- 
fore, in  the  other  life,  there  is  not  only  plenty  to 
know,  but  also  plenty  to  do.  What  the  work  is,  we 
do  not  know;  but  as  the  other  world  is  a  higher 
world,  so  the  work  there  is  higher  than  here. 

It  would  seem  as  if  much  of  human  work  in  this 
world  is  merely  a  training  of  our  power  of  work  on 
unimportant  labors,  to  prepare  us  for  those  of  real 
value.  If  we  have  been  faithful  over  a  few  things, 
we  shall  be  rulers  over  many  things.     Mnety-nine 


NATURE  OF  OUR  CONDITION  HEREAFTER.   229 

hundredths  of  human  labor  here  is  directed  to  pro- 
curing food,  clothing,  and  shelter  for  the  body.  We 
might  have  easily  been  made  so  as  to  need  neither 
food,  clothing,  nor  shelter.  All  creatures  have  to 
work  for  the  first  of  these  objects,  some  for  the  first 
and  last ;  man  has  to  work  for  alL  Is  not  this  in- 
tended to  train  his  working  powers,  so  that  they  may 
be  exercised  on  something  higher  ? 

Lastly,  we  are  told  that  love  abides ;  and,  if  love 
abides,  the  objects  of  love  must  also  abide.  The  con- 
tinuance of  our  human  love  is  one  of  the  best  evi- 
dences, not  only  of  immortality,  but  also  that  we  are 
to  know  our  friends  again,  and  be  with  them  again, 
in  the  other  life.  Else  why  this  undying  memory  of 
our  loved  ones,  this  aching  void,  never  filled  ? 

The  animals  have  an  intense  love  for  their  little 
ones,  but  after  a  few  days  they  forget  them.  They 
are  better  off  than  we  are,  if  we  are  not  to  meet 
again  those  who  have  left  us.  The  cow  mourns  her 
caK  for  a  day  or  two,  and  then  an  end.  But  after 
twenty,  thirty,  fifty  years  have  gone,  the  father  re- 
members, with  a  pang  of  longing,  his  little  child; 
the  mother  carries  her  infant  in  her  heart  till  she 
goes  to  meet  it.  "We  may  change  toward  the  living, 
but  not  toward  the  dead.  Living  friends  may  be 
false  to  us,  or  we  to  them,  but  — 


230  COMMON-SENSE  IN   RELIGION. 

*'  The  love  where  death  has  set  its  seal, 
Nor  age  can  chill,  nor  falsehood  steal, 
Nor  rivals  disallow." 

If  we  had  no  other  reason  for  believing  it,  then 
the  fact  of  this  deep-rooted  love  and  this  incurable 
sense  of  loss,  "this  scar  of  a  deep-stabbed  woe," 
should  be  enough  to  convince  us  of  the  recognition 
and  new  communion  with  those  who  leave  us.  But 
if  in  the  other  world  we  did  not  remember  our 
friends,  there  would  be  no  reason  to  believe  we 
should  remember  anything.  "When  the  old  man's 
memory  goes,  from  the  decay  of  his  body,  he  forgets 
dates  and  names,  forgets  recent  facts,  forgets  recent 
acquaintances ;  but  the  last  thing  he  forgets  are  those 
whom  he  loves.  If,  therefore,  we  should  not  remem- 
ber our  friends  hereafter,  I  think  we  should  not  re- 
member anything.  And  if  we  did  not  remember 
anything,  it  would  be  no  immortality  of  the  soul, 
no  continuation  of  the  same  personal  life. 

In  this  world  we  can  only  look  on  nature  from  the 
outside;  perhaps  then  we  shall  be  able  to  see  it 
from  within.  Have  we  not  all  had  the  feeling  —  in 
looking  at  the  ocean,  at  mountains,  at  a  summer 
landscape,  at  the  midnight  sky  —  of  something  which 
we  long  to  get  at,  but  cannot,  hidden  within  and 
behind  what  we  see  ?    • 


NATURE  OF  OUR   CONDITION  HEREAFTER.      231 

Wordsworth  continually  refers  to  this  instinctive 
longing  which  we  have  to  penetrate  nature,  to  go  be- 
low its  surface.  We  have  senses  here  by  which  we 
perceive  the  sensible  phenomena  of  nature,  the  beauty 
of.  form,  grace  of  motion,  color,  light  and  shadow, 
perfume,  music.  In  the  other  world  we  may  have 
other  faculties  given  us  by  which  to  perceive  other 
phenomena  which  are  now  absolutely  hidden  for 
want  of  some  perceptive  faculties.  There  may  be 
whole  worlds  of  phenomena  hidden  in  nature,  which 
will  open  upon  us  when  we  have  a  spiritual  body 
w^ith  new  senses,  just  as  the  world  of  form  and  color 
would  open  on  a  man  born  bUnd,  or  the  world  of 
melody  open  on  one  born  deaf,  if  these  senses  should 
be  suddenly  awakened. 

This,  I  think,  is  what  Paul  means  by  the  resur- 
rection of  the  body.  It  is  the  rising  up  of  the  body, 
the  ascent  of  bodily  hfe,  the  access  of  new  bodily 
powers.  Every  year,  in  a  thousand  churches,  the 
resurrection  of  the  body  is  spoken  of  as  though  it 
meant  the  same  material  particles  rising  again  out 
of  earth.  But  this  is  a  low,  material,  earthly  view 
of  the  doctrine.  "Flesh  and  blood  shall  not  inherit 
the  kingdom  of  God,  neither  doth  corruption  inherit 
incorruption."  "  That  which  thou  sowest,"  Paul  dis- 
tinctly declares,  "  is  not  that  body  which  shall  be." 


^ 


232 


COMMON-SENSE  IN   RELIGION. 


^. 


^ 


The  resurrection  of  the  acorn  is  an  oak ;  it  rises  up 
in  a  higher  form.  So  man  rises  up  from  the  grave  in 
a  higher  form.  "  It  is  sown  in  corruption,"  that  is,  in 
a  decaying  form  ;  "  it  is  raised  in  incorruption,"  that 
is,  in  a  body  which  will  not  decay.  "  It  is  sown  in 
weakness,  it  is  raised  in  power."  The  resurrection 
of  the  body  is  the  rising  up  or  advance  of  the  bodily 
organization  of  man  from  corruption  to  incorruption, 
from  weakness  to  power,  from  dishonor  to  glory,  from 
a  body  which  weighs  down  the  soul  to  one  which 
expresses  it,  manifests  it,  and  obeys  it  entirely. 

The  other  life,  then,  we  are  taught  by  inspiration 
as  well  as  by  the  analogies  of  nature,  is  a  higher  life 
for  all.  It  is,  therefore,(a  good  thing  for  all  to  die, 
when  the  proper  time  of  death  arrives.  It  is  not 
good  to  take  our  own  life,  as  Mr.  Francis  Newman 
recommends,  and  for  two  reasons :  first,  if  we  intrude 
where  we  are  not  invited,  we  shall  not  be  likely  to 
be  welcomed  very  cordially.  To  be  met  in  the  other 
world  by  the  question  "  Who  sent  for  you  ? "  would 
not  be  very  agreeable.  Then  we  may  not  be  suffi- 
ciently prepared  to  go  up  into  a  higher  life.  If  we 
wait  patiently  till  God  sends  for  us,  we  may  be  sure 
that  it  will  be  a  good  thing  for  us  to  die ;  but  if  we 
go  before  we  are  sent  for,  we  may  find  ourselves 
wholly  unfit  for  that  state. 


NATURE   OF   OUR   CONDITION  HEREAFTER.      233 

When  we  say  that  the  future  life  is  a  higher  con- 
dition than  this  to  all  men,  we  do  not  mean  that 
every  man  there  is  better  and  happier  than  every 
man  here.  The  sphere  of  a  man  in  this  world  is 
higher  than  that  of  a  dog,  yet  some  dogs  may  be 
better  and  happier  than  some  men.  But  if  the  souls 
of  animals  ever  become  men,  that  will  be  a  resur- 
rection, a  rising  up,  to  all  of  them.  All,  good  and 
bad,  will  rise  to  a  higher  plane  of  being  and  higher 
conditions  of  existence.  In  the  same  way  we  may 
believe  that  all  men  will  rise,  at  death,  into  a  higher 
plane  of  being  and  higher  conditions  of  existence. 
Not  that  all  go  into  heaven,  nor  all  into  equal  and 
eternal  happiness,  but  all  go  up  and  on  into  a  higher 
sphere.  It  is  a  rising  up  to  judgment,  as  well  as  to 
joy ;  a  rising  up  to  the  sight  of  God's  truth  and  holi- 
ness, as  well  as  to  that  of  his  love.  Still,  it  is  rising 
up.  The  soul  which  has  deadened  itself  here,  har- 
dened its  conscience  to  the  truth,  convinced  itself 
that  there  is  no  God  and  no  future,  rises  out  of  that 
degraded  state  when  it  comes  to  see  the  great  reali- 
ties of  eternity.  It  rises  to  condemnation,  remorse,  tC-\A^  lA 
shame,  but  it  rises.  Better  for  it  to  see  the  truth,  no  (ZVTtf^  \ 
matter  how  hard  it  is  to  bear,  than  to  remain  forever  CjAHxc 
blinded  to  it.  So,  all  that  are  in  their  graves  shall  (iyy^ut^'i 
hear  the  voice  of  the  Son  of  man  at  last,  and  come  y/^  oi 


234  COMMON-SENSE  IN  RELIGION. 

forth,  —  come  out  of  the  graves  of  unbelief,  of  seli&sh- 
ness,  of  sensuality,  of  falsehood,  in  which  they  have 
buried  themselves,  or  out  of  the  soft  sleep  of  a  life 
spent  in  faithful  and  generous  toil.  They  shall  all 
hear  the  voice  of  "the  Man,"  the  human  voice  of 
Christ,  and  shall  ascend  to  a  higher  plane  of  truth 
and  love.  Therefore,  even  to  those  who  go  into  the 
other  world  selfish,  impenitent,  hardened,  and  without 
any  sense  of  religion,  it  is  an  ascent ;  for  they  go  to 
judgment,  to  see  themselves  and  to  see  the  truth. 
They  have  hardened  themselves  against  the  truth  in 
this  life ;  they  have  closed  their  eyes,  and  shut  their 
ears,  and  hardened  their  hearts  here,  until  it  has 
become  impossible  for  them  to  be  converted  and 
healed.  But  when  they  enter  the  other  world  all  is 
changed.  The  illusions  of  this  world  pass  away. 
They  can  no  longer  deceive  themselves.  They  see 
themselves  as  they  are,  and  God  as  he  is.  This  is 
really  progress,  advance;  the  only  and  essential 
progress. 

The  resurrection  of  the  body  does  not  mean  that 
the  same  body  comes  to  life  again,  as  many  foolishly 
suppose.  Paul  says,  "  Thou  fool,  thou  sowest  not  that 
body  that  shall  be,  but  bare  grain."  The  analogy  of 
seed  and  plant  was  given  us  to  help  us  to  understand 
this.     You  take  some  poor,  black-looking,  dried-up 


NATURE   OF   OUR  CONDITION   HEREAFTER.      235 

seed,  and  put  it  into  the  earth.  The  first  thing  which 
happens  is  that  it  decays,  that  nearly  all  of  it  decays 
and  dies.  But  this  death  of  the  envelope  liberates  the 
germ.  Now  it  begins  to  grow.  It  puts  out  its  two 
little  leaves  above;  it  sends  down  its  little  roots 
below;  it  moves  into  the  air  and  light.  Exquisite, 
delicate  leaves  unfold  and  swing  gently  in  the  soft 
air.  A  bud  arrives,  and  swells,  and  opens  into  a 
lovely  flower.  That  is  the  resurrection  of  the  seed. 
It  is  not  the  same  seed  coming  back  again,  but  some- 
thing higher  coming  out  of  it. 

Common-sense  and  common  observation  teach 
that  all  things  are  advancing,  that  the  law  of  the 
universe  is  perpetual  progress.  The  latest  theory 
—  that  of  Mr.  Darwin  —  seeks  to  legitimate  by 
science  this  universal  law.  The  central  idea  of 
Darwin  is  that  only  the  best  things  survive,  and 
so  that  aU  nature  is  constantly  going  up  from  good 
to  better.  It  is  a  theory  of  hope.  To  be  sure,  it 
is  not  science ;  for  science  is  knowledge,  and  this  is 
theory.  But  so  far  as  it  goes,  it  goes  in  the  steps 
of  revelation,  and  preaches  the  law  of  hope  and 
progress. 

Christianity,  in  its  Scriptures,  does  not  enter  into 
the  details  of  future  existence  as  other  religions  do. 
The  Persians,  the  Brahmans,  the  Egyptians,  describe 


236  COMMON-SENSE  IN  RELIGION. 

minutely  the  state  and  occupations  of  the  soul  in  the 
other  world.  All  this  Christianity  leaves  untold; 
its  revelation  is  for  this  world.  It  brings  God  to  us 
here.  If  we  feel  his  presence  and  his  love  now,  we 
shall  have  no  doubt  about  immortality.  God,  who 
has  made  this  world  so  rich  and  so  fair,  who  has 
arranged  it  so  for  all  our  needs  and  wants,  who  has 
given  us  here  so  much  to  know  and  love  and  do, — 
he  wiU  take  care  of  us  also  there.  Christ  makes  us 
believe  in  immortality,  not  by  telling  us  about  its 
details,  but  by  fiUing  us  with  faith  and  trust  in  God. 
So  he  strengthens  and  quickens  into  fuller  life  the 
natural  instinct  of  immortality.  See  that  little  child 
walking  with  its  father  through  the  streets  of  the 
city.  All  is  strange  to  it,  all  new.  He  does  not 
know  what  is  coming  next,  where  he  is  going  next ; 
but  he  walks  happily  on,  holding  his  father's  hand, 
looking  at  everything,  enjoying  everything,  without 
fear.  But  if,  perchance,  he  loses  for  a  moment  his 
hold  of  his  father's  hand,  and  finds  himself  alone  in 
the  crowd  of  strangers,  he  utters  a  cry  of  terror,  and 
a  great  fear  rushes  over  liis  little  heart.  So  it  is 
with  us  as  we  walk  with  God  through  his  universe 
from  world  to  world.  As  long  as  we  hold  his  hand, 
as  long  as  we  have  our  Father  near  us,  we  are  satis- 
fied with  the  present,  and  enjoy  what  is  around  us. 


NATURE   OF  OUR  CONDITION  HEREAFTER.      237 

and  do  not  ask  what  is  to  come  next.  It  is  only 
when  we  let  go  his  hand  that  a  great  terror  of  the 
future  rushes  over  us,  and  we  are  afraid  before  the 
uncertainties  and  darkness  of  death  and  the  unknown 
worlds  beyond. 


XI. 


COMMON -SENSE  VIEW  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN 
CHURCH. 


XI. 


COMMON-SENSE   VIEW    OF    THE    CHRIS- 
TIAN CHURCH. 

There  are  a  considemble  number  of  intelligent  men 
and  women  who  think  that  the  Christian  Church  is 
of  no  use  at  the  present  time,  whatever  it  may  have 
been  formerly.  Their  reasons  for  thinking  so,  so  far 
as  I  have  heard  them,  are  such  as  these :  "  The 
Church,"  they  say,  "  is  behind  the  times  in  its  doc- 
trines, its  methods,  and  its  aims.  The  need  of  to- 
day is  not  worship,  ceremonies,  ritual,  but  knowl- 
edge and  work.  The  newspapers,  the  magazines,  the 
lyceum,  have  taken  the  place  of  the  Church  as  a 
teacher.  The  various  philanthropic  and  benevolent 
societies  have  taken  its  place  as  a  worker.  Once, 
doubtless,  the  Church  taught  the  people  the  most 
which  they  knew ;  but  now  the  press  is  the  teacher 
of  the  masses.  If  you  wish  to  worship,  why  go  to 
church  ?  Why  not  go  to  the  woods,  or  into  the  fields 
in  the  summer,  and  worship  in  God's  own  temple  ? 
Why  not  go  to  your  room,  or  closet,  as  Christ  com- 
manded, if  it  be  winter,  and  read  some  good  book,  or 
meditate  on  God's  wonderful  world  ? 


242  COMMON-SENSE   IN   KELIGION. 

"  The  Church,"  so  say  these  critics,  "  is  not  only 
behind  the  times  as  regards  its  work,  but  is  a  draw- 
back on  the  work  of  other  people.  It  opposes  re- 
forms, opposes  science,  is  afraid  of  progress;  it  is 
the  "dog  in  the  manger;  it  does  not  do  its  own  work; 
it  leaves  the  poor,  the  vicious,  the  slave,  the  intem- 
perate, the  prisoner,  to  be  taken  care  of  by  others, 
and  finds  fault  with  the  temperance  men,  the  Aboli- 
tionists, the  reformers  who  come  to  do  what  it  has 
neglected.  The  condemnations  pronounced  by  Isaiah 
on  the  church  of  his  time,  and  by  Jesus  on  the 
church  of  his  time,  and  by  Luther  on  tlie  church  of 
his  time,  and  by  Wesley  and  George  Fox  on  the 
churches  of  their  time,  are  still  true ;  and  we  may 
say,  as  they  said,  'It  is  iniquity,  even  the  solemn 
meeting.'  '  It  is  better  to  stay  away  from  church 
than  to  go  to  it.'  " 

I  have  tried  to  state  the  argument  fully  and  fairly. 
Why  be  afraid  of  criticism  ?  Let  us  welcome  it.  If 
any  one  can  find  fault  with  what  we  are  doing, 
let  us  be  glad  to  hear  it.  It  is  best  that  such  objec- 
tions should  come  out ;  then,  if  false,  they  can  be 
answered ;  if  correct,  they  can  be  made  use  of  to 
help  us  improve.     Schiller  says,  — 

*•  My  friend  aids  me  ;  my  foe  also  is  useful  to  me. 
The  one  shows  pie  what  I  am  able  to  do  j  the  p^hei^  vvbat  I  ought 
to  do."  - —  - - 


THE   CHRISTIAN   CHURCH.  243 

Let  us,  at  least,  be  ready  frankly  to  admit  that  the 
Christian  Church  is,  and  always  has  been,  an  imper- 
fect institution.  It  is  quite  capable  of  being  im- 
proved. Others  may  call  it  the  Bride  of  Christ,  the 
Ark  of  Safety,  the  Pure  and  Holy  Mother  of  Souls, 
the  InfalHble,  the  Spotless  Body.  Let  us  be  satisfied 
to  call  it,  as  Christ  did,  a  body  of  disciples ;  that  is, 
a  company  of  scholars  met  to  learn.  They  are  igno- 
rant, therefore  needing  to  be  taught ;  they  have  many 
faults,  and  need  to  correct  them.  They  are  a  body 
of  boys  and  girls,  with  open  minds  and  hearts,  wish- 
ing to  be  instrilcted.  You  do  not  find  fault  with  a 
school-boy  because  he  is  ignorant ;  that  is  his  qualifi- 
cation for  being  a  scholar.  What  we  want  in  a 
scholar  is  ignorance.  The  man  in  the  fable,  who 
would  not  go  into  the  water  till  he  knew  how  to 
swim,  is  the  type  of  those  who  will  not  join  the 
Church  because  they  are  not  good  enough  to  be 
Christians.  By  and  by,  they  say,  when  we  have 
learned  to  swim,  —  that  is,  when  we  have  become 
pious,  holy,  charitable,  without  the  Church,  —  then 
we  will  join  the  Church. 

No,  the  Church  has  always  had  faults  enough,  and 
has  needed  always  to  be  found  fault  with.  It  needs 
it  now.  We  ought  not  to  complain  of  that.  But 
what  we  are  able  to  show  is,  that,  with  aU  its  faults. 


244  COMMON-SENSE  IN  RELIGION. 

it  is  a  useful  and  necessary  institution;  an  institu- 
tion whose  roots  run  down  so  deep  into  human 
nature  that  it  cannot  be  abolished;  an  institution 
which,  in  its  worst  form,  does  so  much  good,  and 
helps  mankind  so  much,  that  they  wiU  never  will- 
ingly let  it  die. 

If  any  one  has  fault  to  find  with  the  Church, 
and  thinks  it  of  no  use,  let  him  consider  how 
deeply  rooted  its  needs  are  in  the  nature  of  man. 
It  cannot  be  destroyed.  If  it  comes  to  an  end  in 
one  form,  it  springs  up  anew  in  another.  Cut 
down  the  old  trunk,  new  shoots  spring  up  from  the 
root.  It  cannot  be  destroyed;  for  some  sort  of  a 
church  is  needed  by  man  for  his  moral  life,  growth, 
peace,  comfort.  Therefore  the  only  question  is,  Will 
you  stand  apart  from  it,  or  take  hold  of  it  and  help 
make  it  better  ?  It  is  easier,  no  doubt,  to  stand  apart 
from  any  institution,  and  criticise  it  from  the  out- 
side ;  but  it  is  better  to  study  it  sympathetically,  and 
try  to  improve  it.  Those  who  think  it  faulty  are  the 
very  ones  who  ought  to  try  to  make  it  better. 

Some  persons,  we  have  said,  have  come  to  the  con- 
clusion that  the  Church  is  of  no  use ;  that  it  is  a 
dilapidated  institution,  well  enough  once,  but  now 
quite  behind  the  age,  and  soon  to  be  superseded  by 
newspapers  and  philanthropic  societies.     They  there- 


THE   CHRISTIAN   CHURCH.  245 

fore  will  have  nothing  to  do  with  it ;  they  will  do 
nothing  to  make  it  better ;  they  simply  let  it  alone. 
"What  they  do  themselves,  they  of  course  would  think 
it  right  for  others  to  do.  Indeed,  on  their  principle, 
this  is  what  all  ought  to  do  and  will  do.  That  which 
is  dead  ought  to  be  buried,  and  put  out  of  sight. 
Let  us,  then,  suppose  this  done;  the  result  brought 
about  at  which  they  aim,  and  which  their  course 
naturally  tends  to  produce.  The  Christian  Church, 
then,  has  ceased  out  of  the  land.  Its  temples  are  no 
longer  opened  on  the  Lord's  day  for  worship.  There 
is  no  more  meeting  for  common-prayer,  for  praise,  for 
songs  of  thanksgiving,  for  listening  to  the  words  of 
Jesus  Christ,  for  instruction  from  the  pulpit  in  truth 
and  duty.  The  twenty  thousand  pulpits,  which  now, 
once  a  week,  call  men  to  recognize  the  presence  of 
God  in  the  world,  are  silent.  Soon  Sunday  becomes 
like  any  other  day.  Work,  amusement,  the  cares  of 
life,  which  are  now  shut  out  for  a  few  hours,  one  day 
in  seven,  by  this  little  embankment  which  we  caU  Sun- 
day, —  these  rush  in,  and  all  of  human  life  becomes 
one  monotonous  course  of  working,  eating,  sleeping, 
society,  study,  amusement.  No  solemn  sense  of  the 
Divine  Presence  comes  in  with  the  opening  morn  of 
Sunday ;  no  words  reminding  us  that  we  are  not 
wholly  of  this  earth,  no  words  filled  with  immortal 


246  COMMON-SENSE  IN  RELIGION. 

hope,  come  to  nerve  the  heart  and  soul.  Little  chil- 
dren are  born,  and  no  baptismal  blessing  is  laid 
on  their  brow;  our  dear  ones  die,  and  are  put  into 
the  ground,  and  no  prayer  ascends  over  the  grave. 
Soon,  also,  the  Bible  loses  its  power.  Being  no  longer 
publicly  read,  being  taught  no  longer  in  the  Sunday 
school,  being  no  longer  explained  and  enforced  in  the 
sermon,  it  will  gradually  take  its  place  with  other 
good  books,  and  be  read  as  we  read  them.  It  will 
not  any  longer  be  the  law  of  Christendom,  a  Divine 
law,  to  be  appealed  to  in  behalf  of  justice  by  the 
oppressed;  a  law  to  rebuke  the  tyrant  and  elevate 
the  slave ;  a  law  keeping  the  public  conscience  en- 
lightened, and  sensitive  to  the  distinctions  of  right 
and  wrong.  Will  newspapers  take  its  place  ?  Will 
the  place  of  prophets  and  apostles  be  fully  supplied 
by  those  young  men  who  are  obliged  to  write  in 
haste  an  article  for  to-morrow's  paper,  whether  they 
know  anything  of  the  subject  or  not  ?  Will  the 
lyceum  platform  supply  its  place,  —  the  platform 
which,  no  doubt,  often  preaches  noble  sermons,  and 
often  becomes  a  true  Christian  pulpit,  but  which  is 
obliged  more  frequently  to  entertain  and  amuse  its 
hearers  ?  The  lyceum  can  hardly  devote  itself  to 
teaching  the  eternal  principles  of  truth.  Will  science 
take  its  place  ?     Science  is  knowledge ;  religion  is 


THE   CHKISTIAN   CHURCH.  247 

faith,  hope,  and  love.  Will  a  treatise  on  algebra  or 
chemistry  take  the  place,  to  a  child,  of  his  father  and 
mother  ?  Light  is  one  tiling,  life  another.  It  is 
the  business  of  science  to  communicate  light  to  the 
intellect ;  it  is  the  work  of  the  Church  to  bring  the 
soul  to  God  in  submission,  faith,  obedience,  love ;  to 
God,  the  source  of  life.  Will  the  progress  of  civili- 
zation make  the  Church  unnecessary  ?  Civilization 
means  the  increase  of  wealth,  and  so  of  luxury ;  the 
multiplication  of  railroads,  cotton-factories,  steam- 
ships ;  it  means  cheap  postage,  cheap  newspapers,  all 
the  inventions  and  improvements  which  make  our 
outward  life  more  comfortable  and  more  ornamental. 
But  decorate  our  outward  life  to  any  extent,  multiply 
luxuries  to  any  amount,  you  still  feel  the  inward 
want,  never  satisfied,  of  something  higher ;  you  still 
need  something  to  love,  something  to  love  you,  some- 
thing infinite  and  eternal,  lasting  amid  all  change, 
the  end  and  object  of  all  being.  Civilization  tends 
to  separation.  It  tends  to  separate  class  from  class, 
to  divide  the  rich  from  the  poor,  the  cultivated  from 
the  ignorant;  it  constantly  emphasizes  more  and 
more  the  differences  between  man  and  man.  We 
need  something  to  make  us  realize  our  common  hu- 
manity ;  and  that  we  chiefly  feel  in  the  presence  of 
God,  before  whom  all  human  distinctions  fall  down. 


248  COMMON-SENSE  IN   RELIGION. 

The  Church  alone  places  us  in  the  presence  of  God ; 
it  alone  gives  unity  to  our  life ;  it  makes  all  men 
one,  whether  they  be  ricli  or  poor,  high  or  low,  saints 
or  sinners,  wise  or  foolish,  learned  or  ignorant,  mas- 
ters or  servants,  refined  or  coarse,  successful  or  de- 
feated ;  for  all  are  one  before  God.  Without  a  church, 
democracy  is  probably  impossible ;  for  the  Church  is 
the  only  institution  which  teaches  equality  and  fra- 
ternity on  an  everlasting  basis.  It  says,  "Call  no 
man  common  or  unclean."  It  says,  "  Are  ye  not  all 
brethren  ? " 

It  appears,  therefore,  that  those  who  think  the 
Church  may  be  ignored  or  dispensed  with  probably 
take  a  narrow  view  of  the  matter.  Though  they 
may  be  educated  and  cultivated,  they  have  little  real 
sympathy  with  the  great  masses ;  they  are,  perhaps, 
acute,  but  they  are  certainly  shallow.  I  mean,  of 
course,  shallow  and  narrow  as  regards  this  point. 
They  are  not  in  fellowship  with  that  human  nature 
which,  in  all  lands  and  all  times,  demands  a  worship 
of  the  Invisible  which  rises  always  above  the  seen 
to  the  unseen,  which  humbles  itself  before  the  Most 
High  and  is  exalted,  which  finds  itself  lifted  up  by 
casting  itself  prostrate  before  the  Eternal  Truth  and 
the  Infinite  Beauty. 

The  Church  is  as  permanently  founded  and  rooted 


THE   CHRISTIAN   CHURCH.  249 

in  human  nature  as  the  state.  It  springs  up  of  itself 
everywhere,  whenever  man  begins  to  rise  above  the 
savage  state.  Confucius  has  his  church ;  Buddha  has 
his  church ;  Zoroaster  has  his  church.  They  have  all 
existed  during  twenty  or  thirty  centuries,  based 
wholly  on  the  need  of  social  worship.  They  rest  on 
the  deep  instinct  which  makes  men  feel  that  they 
are  stronger,  better  and  wiser  for  going  together  to 
worship  before  God.  The  worst  church  is  better 
than  none,  just  as  the  worst  state  is  better  than  none. 
A  bad  government  is  better  than  anarchy.  A  bad 
church  is  better  than  to  live  without  God  in  the 
world,  because  that  is  sure  to  end  in  brutality  and 
moral  death. 

The  Church  is  the  home  of  the  poor,  the  comfort 
of  the  sufferer,  the  friend  of  the  oppressed,  the  sup- 
port of  the  dying,  the  hope  of  the  bereaved.  It  comes 
to  those  upon  whom  society  has  laid  heavy  burdens, 
and  takes  them  by  the  hand  to  raise  them  up. 

Will  philanthropic  institutions  take  its  place? 
Each  of  these  is  based  on  the  right  of  some  one 
need  of  society,  of  some  single  work  to  be  done. 
All  are  founded  on  the  principle  of  division  of  labor. 
But  we  need  one  central  institution,  all  inclusive, 
which  shaU  give  unity  to  all;  which  shall  supply 
motive-power  to  all  by  awakening  conscience,  which 
11* 


250  COMMON-SENSE  IN  EELIGION. 

shall  supply  also  a  common  law  for  all  in  the  ethics 
of  the  New  Testament,  which  shall  give  unity  to  all 
by  making  all  responsible  to  God  and  all  dependent 
on  him. 

Just,  then,  as  the  state  is  useful  because  it  protects 
the  property  and  the  person  of  all  men,  and  maintains 
social  order;  just  as  the  school  is  useful  because  it 
gives  to  all  that  knowledge  and  intelligence  without 
which  a  free  state  cannot  exist ;  just  as  the  press  is 
useful  to  throw  light  into  all  dark  places,  and  concen- 
trate public  opinion  on  all  abuses ;  just  as  benevo- 
lent and  philanthropic  societies  are  useful  to  meet 
every  special  need  and  sorrow,  —  so  the  Church  is  use- 
ful to  keep  alive  in  the  whole  community  the  sense 
of  God's  presence ;  to  teach  responsibility  to  him,  the 
invisible  witness  of  all  our  actions;  to  inspire  faith, 
hope,  and  love  toward  him,  the  universal  Father.  It 
so  furnishes  the  only  means  of  giving  unity  to  life, 
and  of  preventing  society  from  falling  into  anarchy 
and  mutual  opposition.  This  is  the  central  force, 
the  regulator  of  civilization,  and  without  wliich  no 
advanced  society  seems  possible.  The  savage  state 
may  exist  without  a  church  ;  but  civilization  divorced 
from  some  religious  institutions  is  apparently  impos- 
sible. 

We  have  been  speaking  of  the  Church  in  general 


THE   CHRISTIAN   CHURCH.  251 

What  we  have  said  includes  the  Catholic  and  the 
Protestant  Churches,  and  all  forms  of  Protestantism 
from  the  most  orthodox  to  the  most  radical.  The 
formula  of  the  Church  universal  is  given  by  Jesus 
when  he  says,  "  Where  two  or  three  meet  together  in 
my  name,  there  am  I  in  the  midst  of  them."  Two 
or  three  meeting  together  anyhow,  anywhere,  in  the 
spirit  of  Christ,  —  which  is  the  spirit  of  filial  love 
to  God  and  fraternal  love  to  man,  —  they  make  a 
Christian  church. 

But  now,  having  attempted  to  show  the  mistake 
of  those  who  think  the  Christian  Church  is  an  out- 
grown institution,  we  must  add  some  criticisms  to 
those  already  expressed.  The  Church  is  strong 
enough  to  bear  a  great  deal  of  criticism,  and  will  be 
better  for  all  sincere  and  serious  suggestions  of  its 
defects  and  needs.  When  we  are  satisfied  that,  in 
its  essential  substance,  it  stands  firm  on  the  rock  of 
human  nature,  we  shall  feel  ready  to  examine  and 
criticise  with  perfect  freedom  any  of  its  local  and 
temporary  defects. 

Let  us  then  take  an  impartial  look  at  our  existing 
churches. 

What  is  a  church  for  ?  Some  persons  think  that 
it  is  one  with  the  right  genealogy,  regularly  and 
properly  derived  from  that  one  originally  founded  by 


252  COMMON-SENSE  IN   RELIGION. 

Christ.  They  examine  the  title  of  a  church  as  they 
would  that  of  an  estate ;  they  search  for  flaws  in  it ; 
they  think  that  it  is  no  church  if  there  is  anything 
wrong  in  its  constitution.  A  family  may  be  living  in 
the  undisputed  possession  of  a  property.  Their  father 
had  it  before  them;  their  grandfather  before  him. 
But  their  great-grandfather  did  not  get  a  perfect  title 
to  it,  his  lawyer  made  some  mistake  in  drawing  up 
the  deeds;  therefore,  now  they  must  give  it  up, 
and  lose  it.  Just  so  some  people  think  about  the 
Church.  Here  is  a  good  church,  full  of  good  Chris- 
tians, the  pious  souls  of  men  and  women,  dear  little 
children,  all  on  their  way  to  heaven,  as  one  would 
say.  Not  at  all;  their  minister  was  ordained  by 
some  one  who  was  ordained  by  some  one  else,  who 
was  ordained  by  some  one  who  did  not  get  his  or- 
dination from  the  proper  person.  There  is  a  flaw 
in  the  title ;  so  it  is  no  church,  after  all ;  so  they  are 
not  Christians,  or  at  least  have  no  "  covenanted  mer- 
cies," no  real  right  to  trust  in  God's  love  and  grace. 
This  is  the  idea  some  people  have  of  a  church. 

Others,  again,  think  that  the  true  Church  is  the  one 
which  teaches  sound  doctrine.  A  true  church  is  the 
one  which  is  correct  in  its  theology  about  the  origin 
of  evil,  which  takes  sound  views  of  the  nature  and 
extent  of  Total  Depravity,  which  holds  an  orthodox 


THE   CHRISTIAN   CHURCH.  253 

view  of  the  Atonement.  It  is  true  that  this  only- 
means  that  the  minister  of  the  church  accepts  Dr. 
Wiseacre's  theory  about  these  deep  matters  rather 
than  that  of  Dr.  Newman;  for  the  members  of  the 
church  probably  know  nothing  about  these  points 
one  way  or  the  other.  No  matter.  If  their  minister 
is  sound,  they  are  sound,  —  sound  all  through.  If  he 
is  unsound,  so  are  they.  The  General  Assembly  of 
the  Presbyterian  Church  once  cut  off  four  synods, 
and  excommunicated  forty  thousand  church-members, 
because  the  majority  of  the  ministers  in  those  synods 
were  supposed  to  hold  wrong  views  concerning  the 
origin  of  evil 

But  there  is  another  view  of  the  true  Church  which 
is  a  little  different  from  this.  It  is  that  it  consists 
of  those  who  love  God,  and  love  Christ,  and  love 
each  other,  and  who  desire  to  become  purer  and  bet- 
ter. This  union  of  souls  may  not  be  sound  in  the 
faith ;  may  have  a  very  imperfect  sort  of  organiza- 
tion ;  may  have  no  connection  with  popes,  cardinals, 
or  even  bishops ;  may  not  have  a  single  theory,  good 
or  bad,  about  the  origin  of  evil ;  may  not  know  what 
to  think  about  the  Trinity ;  may  be  blind  as  moles 
in  regard  to  the  Atonement ;  but  if  they  are  honestly 
desiring  to  do  God's  will,  then,  according  to  this 
view,  they  are  a  true  church  of  Jesus  Christ 


254  COMMON-SENSE  IN   RELIGION. 

Those  who  belong  to  this  church  of  seekers  and 
disciples  may  not  be  nearly  as  good  as  those  outside 
of  it;  but  they  are  seeking  to  become  better,  and 
they  have  in  their  souls  a  principle  which  will  make 
them  better. 

Some  people  imagine  the  true  Church  to  consist 
of  good  people  only,  persons  who  are  all  pious  and 
holy,  all  as  pure  and  free  from  sin  as  possible.  They 
ought  to  be  all  regenerated  saints,  little  lower  than 
the  angels.  But  there  is  no  proof  of  this  in  Scripture. 
Sinners,  not  saints,  were  those  who  kept  company 
with  Jesus,  and  with  whom  he  kept  company.  He 
gathered  around  him  a  church  of  sinners,  when  he 
was  in  the  world.  That  was  the  standing  charge 
against  him.  Afterward  the  church  of  the  Apostles 
was  not  much  better.  It  had  in  it  those  who 
hgid  been  thieves,  liars,  and  adulterers,  and  had 
to  be  warned  all  the  time  against  these  vices.  "  Lie 
not  one  to  another,  brethren,  seeing  ye  have  put  off 
the  old  man  and  his  deeds."  "  Let  him  that  stole, 
steal  no  more,  but  labor  with  his  hands."  They  even 
became  drunk  at  the  communion  at  Corinth;  some 
of  them  did  not  believe  in  any  resurrection  of  the 
dead.  Peter  dissembled,  and  acted  falsely,  and  Paul 
rebuked  him.  Paul  and  Barnabas  quarrelled,  and 
could  not  get  along  together,  and  had  to  separate. 


THE   CHRISTIAN   CHURCH.  255 

There  is  no  evidence  that  the  Christians  at  first  were 
much  better  than  others. 

Gamaliel  was  probably  a  better  man  than  the 
Apostle  Peter ;  and  Marcus  Aurelius  Antoninus  was 
a  better  man  than  half  the  Apostles.  The  difference 
in  favor  of  the  Apostles  was  this,  that  Gamaliel  and 
Antoninus  had  got  as  far  as  they  could  go.  But 
Peter,  James,  John,  Paul,  and  every  Christian  soul 
had  a  principle  of  faith  and  purpose  in  their  souls  ;  a 
living  conviction  which  would  carry  them  up  and  on 
a  very  long  way. 

A  currant-bush  once  said  to  an  acorn,  "  What  an 
insignificant  little  thing  you  are !  /  bear  currants, 
and  am  a  large  bush  1 "  "  Yes,"  said  the  acorn ;  "  but 
wait  awhile.  I  have  a  germ  in  me  that  is  to  make 
of  me  a  great  tree,  larger  than  ten  thousand  currant- 
bushes." 

The  Eoman  Catholic  Church  has  done  and  is  doing 
a  good  work.  It  has  helped  to  purify,  educate,  and 
civilize  the  world.  It  is  based  on  permanent  prin- 
ciples of  human  nature,  or  it  could  not  last  as  it  has 
lasted.  Its  one  great  sin  has  been  to  seek  to  domi- 
neer over  the  mind  instead  of  instructing  it,  to 
drive  instead  of  to  lead.  Its  sin  is  pride,  by  which 
the  angels  fell ;  and  it  has  not  repented  of  that  sin. 
The  Church  of  Eome  has  never  said  a  single  word  to 


256  COMMON-SENSE  IN  EELIGION. 

show  that  it  repents  of  the  Massacre  of  St.  Bartholo- 
mew, the  persecution  of  the  Albigenses  in  the  south 
of  France,  the  expulsion  of  the  Huguenots,  the  hor- 
rors of  the  Inquisition,  the  wholesale  massacres  of 
Tilly  in  Germany  and  Alva  in  Holland.  I  honor  the 
Church  of  Eome  for  all  its  great  and  noble  works, 
but  I  pray  that  it  may  remember,  before  it  is  too 
late,  the  saying  of  its  Master  to  another  church  older 
than  its  own:  "I  know  thy  works  and  thy  labor 
and  thy  patience,  and  how  thou  canst  not  bear  them 
that  are  evil ;  and  for  my  name's  sake  hast  labored, 
and  not  fainted.  Nevertheless,  I  have  somewhat 
against  thee,  because  thou  hast  left  thy  first  love. 
Eemember,  therefore,  from  whence  thou  art  fallen, 
and  do  the  first  works,  or  else  I  will  come  unto  thee 
quickly,  and  remove  thy  candlestick  out  of  his  place, 
unless  thou  repent."  A  church  must  repent  of  its 
sins,  no  less  than  an  individual.  If  a  church  pro- 
fesses to  be  infallible,  and  always  right,  then  it 
cannot  repent;  and  so,  sooner  or  later,  unless  it 
gives  up  this  pretence  of  infallibility,  its  candlestick 
must  be  removed  out  of  its  place. 

The  Protestant  Church  came,  in  the  providence  of 
God,  because  it  was  needed.  The  rights  of  the  in- 
dividual conscience  had  been  crushed  under  Church 
authority,  and  they  needed  to  be  established.     Good- 


THE  CHRISTIAN   CHURCH.  257 

ness  had  been  derived  from  outward  conformity,  in- 
stead of  inward  faith  in  great  truths.  Protestantism 
came  to  teach  the  rights  of  man,  and  that  the  one 
thing  needful  was  an  inward  principle  of  goodness 
in  heart  and  life. 

An  Episcopal  divine  in  New  York  has  recently 
pronounced  Protestantism  a  failure.  If  Protestant- 
ism is  a  failure,  it  is  so  for  the  same  reason  that 
CathoUcism  is  a  failure.  It  is  because  it  has  imitated 
the  Church  of  Rome,  tried  to  drive  instead  of  to 
lead,  set  up  little  popes  instead  of  the  great  one, 
left  its  first  love,  which  was  freedom  of  thought,  and 
sought  to  fetter  the  human  mind  again  by  creeds  and 
by  ceremonies.  Therefore  has  come  a  new  Protes- 
tantism protesting  against  the  old,  —  a  Protestantism 
of  common-sense.  It  has  come  in  the  form  of  Uni- 
tarianism,  Swedenborgianism,  Universalism,  Spirit- 
ualism, Transcendentalism,  Radicalism.  These  are 
aU  more  or  less  narrow,  but  they  are  all  necessary 
as  steps  to  something  better. 

If  an  intelligent  Buddhist  monk,  who  had  always 
lived  in  a  monastery  in  Thibet,  should  land  in  Bos- 
ton, he  would,  no  doubt,  be  much  interested  in  our 
activities  and  industries.  "We  should  take  him  to 
Lowell  to  look  at  the  factories,  to  the  navy-yard  to 
see   our  iron-clads,  to   our  hospitals,  to  our  public 


258  COMMON-SENSE  IN   RELIGION. 

library,  to  our  grammar  schools,  to  the  Latin  and 
Normal  schools.  We  should  show  him  State  Street, 
explain  to  him  the  nature  of  a  bank,  and  the  meth- 
ods of  the  post-office  ;  take  him  to  the  State  House 
and  the  City  Hall  and  the  court-rooms,  and  make  him 
understand  the  threefold  cord  of  government,  —  legis- 
lative, executive,  and  judicial.  So  six  days  pass, 
each  bringing  some  new  astonishment ;  at  last  Sun- 
day comes,  and  our  Buddhist  is  surprised  to  find  a 
great  change  in  the  aspect  of  things.  Shops,  offices, 
banks,  courts.  State  House,  City  Hall,  are  closed.  No 
newspapers,  or  few,  appear ;  no  theatres,  and  few  rail- 
road trains.  The  streets  are  quiet ;  the  trucks  and 
drays  which  crowd  them  at  other  times  are  absent ; 
the  roar  of  the  factories  is  still ;  the  hum  of  the 
school-house  is  silent.  Instead  of  this,  the  churches 
are  open,  and  groups  of  quiet  citizens  are  entering. 

Our  Buddhist  asks  the  meaning  of  this,  and  is 
told  that  while,  in  ancient  times,  a  tenth  of  the  prop- 
erty was  given  to  the  gods,  we  consecrate  on  the  altar 
of  our  religion  a  seventh  part  of  our  annual  income ; 
for  time  is  money.  This  day  belongs  to  Christianity 
and  the  Church:  we  devote  it  to  reading  the  com- 
mands of  God,  the  history  of  Christ ;  to  teaching  the 
community  the  laws  of  justice,  mercy,  truth,  purity, 
benevolence,  temperance,  piety   to  God,   charity   to 


THE   CHRISTIAN   CHURCH.  259 

man.  Our  other  institutions  are  for  some  particular 
purpose;  this  is  for  the  purpose  which  includes  all 
the  rest.  It  is  to  teach  pure  morality,  to  awaken  and 
enlighten  the  conscience.  Our  schools  are  to  make 
the  people  intelligent,  to  give  the  knowledge  which  is 
power ;  but  the  Church  is  to  teach  them  how  to  use 
the  power  for  their  own  good  and  that  of  other  peo- 
ple. To  other  places  people  go  for  special  objects: 
those  who  wish  amusement  go  to  the  theatre ;  those 
who  desire  instruction  go  to  the  lecture  or  public 
library.  Children  go  to  school;  the  sick  go  to  the 
hospital;  the  poor  and  old  go  to  the  asylum.  But 
to  the  Church  all  come ;  here,  and  nowhere  else,  all 
classes  in  the  community  meet,  —  the  rich  and  poor, 
wise  and  ignorant,  young  and  old.  In  other  places 
particular  evils  are  considered  and  remedied;  here 
alone  all  evils  are  considered,  and  here  alone  is  per- 
petual battle  waged  against  sin  in  all  its  forms.  In 
other  places  we  act  on  men  by  force  and  by  law ; 
here,  only  by  the  power  of  reason  and  of  love.  Con- 
viction and  affection  is  the  aim  of  everything  here. 

Wlien  our  Buddhist  friend  hears  this  statement,  I 
think  he  will  be  much  pleased,  and  will  say,  "  This 
institution  which  you  call  the  Church  is  the  noblest 
thing  I  have  yet  seen.  This  is  the  crown  of  your 
whole  civilization;  this  gives  unity  to  aU  the  van- 


2G0  COMMON-SENSE  IN  RELIGION. 

ety;  this  makes  God  the  centre  and  axis  round 
which  all  else  revolves.  How  fortunate  you  are  in 
having  such  an  institution,  to  bind  your  whole  state 
in  one  harmony  of  united  belief  and  action !  How 
dreary  would  your  society  be  if  these  churches  should 
be  closed ;  and  with  what  joy  must  your  whole  com- 
munity join  in  these  grand  meetings  of  universal 
brotherhood ! " 

"Well,  not  exactly,"  you  would  be  compelled  to 
reply.  "No;  there  are  a  great  many  persons  who 
do  not  belong  to  the  Church,  never  go  to  it,  take 
no  interest  in  it.  These  are  often  some  of  the  most 
intelligent  people.  They  think  there  is  no  more 
need  for  a  church,  no  use  for  it,  that  its  work  is  over. 
Instead  of  going  to  church,  they  stay  at  home  and 
read,  or,  in  the  summer,  walk  in  the  woods.  In  fact, 
they  rather  pride  themselves  on  having  outgrown  the 
Church." 

"  But,"  says  my  Buddhist,  "  do  they  think  it  would 
be  better  to  have  no  Sunday  rest,  no  Sunday  worship, 
no  Sunday  meeting  of  all  parts  of  the  community, 
no  Sunday  instruction  of  the  people  in  justice,  hon- 
esty, charity,  no  teaching  of  the  Bible  to  the  whole 
community  ? " 

"  I  suppose  they  must  think  so,"  you  reply  ;  "  for 
if  it  is  a  good  thing  for  them  to  stay  outside  of  the 


THE   CHRISTIAN   CHURCH.  261 

Church,  it  must  be  a  good  thing  for  others.  If  they 
have  outgrown  the  Church,  it  must  be  a  good  thing 
for  others  to  outgrow  it." 

"I  can  understand,"  says  the  monk  of  Thibet, 
"  that  a  man  might  think  it  well  sometimes  to  stay 
at  home  and  read,  and  sometimes  to-  go  into  the 
fields  on  Sunday.  But  this  institution  you  describe 
is  so  noble,  so  necessary  to  unite  all  the  people  on 
the  deepest  and  highest  ground,  so  necessary  for  their 
education  in  the  fundamental  principles  of  justice  and 
mercy,  that  I  cannot  see  how  any  one  can  be  uninter- 
ested in  it.  If  you  did  not  have  such  a  harmonizing 
centre  of  life  and  love,  you  would  have  to  create  one. 
But  this  you  have,  resting  on  a  religious  foundation, 
established  by  ancient  usage,  confirmed  by  its  vast 
uses,  justified  by  the  needs  of  society.  How  can 
any  one  be  indifferent  to  it  ?  '* 

Here,  however,  you  put  in  a  word  for  the  come- 
outers.  "  The  fact  is,"  you  say,  "  there  are  practical 
defects  in  our  churches,  which  have  justly  displeased 
many  persons.  It  is  not  exactly  the  bond  of  union 
I  have  described.  The  Christian  Church  is  broken 
up  into  twenty  or  more  large  sects,  each  one  claim- 
ing to  be  right,  and  declaring  the  others  to  be  wrong. 
They  have  nothing  to  do  with  each  other;  each  is 
trying  to  destroy  the  rest,  and  swallow  them  up.     Ko- 


262  COMMON-SENSE  IN  RELIGION. 

man  Catholics  declare  all  Protestants  to  be  wrong, 
and  on  their  way  to  destruction.  Protestants  say  the 
same  of  Catholics.  Episcopalians  say  "  The  Church," 
meaning  that  the  little  fraction  of  Christianity  which 
belongs  to  them  is  the  whole  of  it.  Baptists  say  that 
no  man  is  a  Christian  who  has  not  been  covered  up 
with  water  once  in  his  life  in  a  solemn  manner.  We 
have  not  one  church,  but  a  great  many ;  and  I  grieve 
to  say  that  they  are  contending  and  quarrelling 
with  each  other,  instead  of  uniting  in  one  gTcat  war 
against  the  sins  and  evils  of  the  world." 

"  That  seems  to  me  very  wrong,"  says  the  Buddhist, 
"  and,  more  than  that,  very  foolish.  If  your  Church 
is  a  house  divided  against  itself,  your  Master  says  it 
cannot  stand;  or,  at  least,  it  will  fall  if  it  be  not 
built  on  a  rock.  But  surely  all  your  churches  stand 
on  Christ,  and  teach  the  same  things.  I  have  read 
your  Gospels,  your  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  those  beau- 
tiful parables  of  the  Good  Samaritan  and  the  Prodi- 
gal Son.  This  is  what  all  your  churches  teach,  I 
suppose ;  so  they  must  all  do  good." 

"  Yes ;  they  do  read  the  Gospels,"  say  you,  "  but 
then  they  do  not  preach  a  great  deal  about  them. 
They  spend  most  of  their  time  in  teaching  the 
*  Trinity,'  the  '  Atonement,*  '  Total  Depravity,'  '  Ever- 
lasting Damnation,*  and  the  like.     So  they  have  not 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  263 

much  time  left  to  teach  love  to  God  and  love  to 
man." 

"  But,"  says  the  Buddhist,  "  what  words  are  these  ? 
'  Trinity  ! '  '  atonement ! '  '  depravity ! '  I  do  not  see 
these  in  your  Bible.  I  thought  Christ  came  to  teach 
salvation,  and  to  say,  *  Heaven  is  at  hand.'  He  did 
not  come  to  teach  damnation,  and  say,  'The  king- 
dom of  hell  is  at  hand  ! '  I  see  now  why  people  stay 
away  from  church.  But  one  thing  I  wish  to  under- 
stand. I  went  into  a  church  one  day,  and  I  saw  the 
people  sitting  in  little  boxes,  each  shut  up  in  his 
box.  I  wished  to  go  in,  but  no  one  asked  me  tjo  go 
in.  There  was  a  great  deal  of  room,  but  I  stood  up 
a  good  while,  and  no  one  said  '  Sit  down  with  me ' ; 
so  I -thought  it  was  because  I  was  a  Buddliist,  and  I 
went  away." 

"  By  no  means,"  you  hasten  to  say.  "  They  treat. 
Christians  in  the  same  way ;  they  only  wish  for 
those  people  in  the  churches  to  come  and  be  taught 
religion  who  are  able  to  buy  seats." 

"  But  are  they  the  only  ones  who  need  religion  ? 
What  becomes  of  all  those  who  have  no  money  ? 
You  have  schools  for  every  one,  rich  or  poor ;  schools 
free  to  all.  Poor  children,  in  your  country,  can  learn 
to  read  and  \vTite.  Is  it  not  as  important  for  them 
to  learn  to  love  God  and  man  ?    You  keep  every  one 


264  COMMON-SENSE  IN   RELIGION. 

from  working  on  Sunday,  rich  and  poor ;  I  should 
think  you  would  have  churches  open  for  them  all." 

"  I  begin  to  understand,  now,"  continues  the  Buddh- 
ist, "  why  your  people  do  not  care  enough  for  the 
Church.  You  say  Jesus  made  a  church  which  was 
to  teach  every  one  how  to  do  good,  and  be  good,  and 
to  make  all  men  one.  Then  you  say  that  only  peo- 
ple shall  come  to  it  who  can  pay  money ;  that  only 
those  who  believe  as  you  do  can  belong  to  it ;  and 
instead  of  teaching  trust  in  God,  hope  and  love,  you 
teach  things  which  no  one  can  understand.  But  if 
I  were  a  Christian,  I  tell  you  what  I  would  do.  I 
would  not  go  into  the  woods,  and  say  I  did  not  need 
any  church,  because  I  was  so  wise ;  but  I  would  try 
to  have  a  good  church,  where  all  men  should  be 
brothers ;  where  they  should  be  welcome,  no  matter 
,what  they  believed,  if  they  wished  to  be  good  men 
and  women  ;  where,  instead  of  talking  about  hell,  we 
should  talk  about  heaven ;  where,  instead  of  saying 
"  OUT  church,"  we  should  say  "  our  elder  brother,  Jesus 
Christ";  and  where  our  work  should  be  to  do  as 
much  good  and  get  as  much  good  as  possible."  Thus 
spoke  my  Buddhist.  And  this  seems  to  me  to  be 
the  common-sense  view  of  the  Christian  Church. 

The  Church  of  Christ  is  the  greatest  of  all  human 
institutions,  and  the  most  necessary  of  all.    Other  in- 


THE   CHRISTIAN   CHURCH.  265 

stitutions  have  a  local  and  temporary  work ;  this  has 
one  always  the  same,  —  the  same  yesterday,  to-day, 
and  forever.  In  all  lands  and  times  men  need  to  be 
taught  the  love  of  God  and  man,  need  to  be  told  of 
the  great  laws  of  right  and  wrong,  need  to  have  the 
conscience  quickened  and  enlightened.  But  in  a 
country  like  ours,  where  the  people  govern,  they  need, 
more  than  anywhere  else,  to  be  perpetually  taught 
the  laws  of  morality  and  religion.  This  is  the  only 
power  which  can  balance  the  centrifugal  force  of 
freedom  by  means  of  the  centripetal  power  of  right, 
—  the  only  power  which  can  permanently  keep  the 
state  and  nation  one.  If  we  had  no  such  institutions 
as  church  and  Sunday,  all  good  men  would  have  to 
unite  to  invent  them.  But  it  would  be  very  hard  to 
do  so,  —  harder  still  to  put  them  in  practical  opera- 
tion. But,  now  we  have  them,  have  them  established 
in  the  belief  and  the  habits  of  the  people.  It  is  the 
height  of  madness  not  to  make  the  best  possible  use 
of  them. 

Jesus  declares  he  shall  build  his  Church  on  the 
declaration  of  Peter  that  he  is  the  Christ ;  and  Paul 
says  that  the  Church  is  built  on  the  foundation  of 
apostles  and  prophets,  Jesus  Christ  himself  being  the 
chief  corner-stone.  But  other  foundations  have  been 
laid.     Some  churches  have  been  built  on  an  infallible 

12 


266  COMMON-SENSE  IN  RELIGION. 

priesthood,  on  sacraments,  on  Calvinism,  Methodism, 
Unitarianism,  Episcopacy,  Universalism,  Baptism, 
Presbyterianism.  These  have  been  made  the  real 
foundations  instead  of  Christ.  The  result  has  been 
that  men  have  been  asked  to  come  to  Christ  pro- 
vided they  will  come  in  the  Baptist  way  or  Metho- 
dist way;  to  believe  in  Christ  provided  they  will 
believe  also  in  some  particular  creed ;  to  become  fol- 
lowers of  Christ  if  they  wiU  follow  him  after  the 
methods  of  Wesley,  Calvin,  Cliannii)g,  or  Theodore 
Parker.  Hence  Christ  is  divided,  and  we  have  many 
members,  lovit  not  one  body. 

The  Apostle  Paul,  with  an  exact  insight  which 
demonstrates  the  reality  of  his  prophetic  inspiration, 
has  stated  beforehand  the  true  theory  of  the  Church. 
The  human  body  is  the  type  of  its  unity  and  its  va- 
riety. Unity  in  variety  is  his  motto.  One  body, 
many  members.  The  Eoman  Catholic  Church  has 
pushed  the  unity  so  far  as  to  destroy  the  variety. 
Protestantism  has  pushed  variety  so  far  as  to  destroy 
imity.  This  is  the  fundamental  evil  in  the  Christian 
Church  to-day. 

Another  great  and  ruinous  defect  in  the  Christian 
Church  is  that  it  has  been  a  church  of  the  clergy, 
not  of  the  people.  It  is  professedly  and  avowedly 
so  in  the  Romish  Church ;  there  the  priesthood  is 


THE   CHRISTIAN   CHURCH.  267 

the  Church.  It  is  virtually  so  in  Protestant  churches. 
Milton  said,  "  New  'presbyter  is  old  priest  written 
large."  The  whole  direction  is  left  to  the  ministers, 
and  they,  being  theologians,  make  theology  the  main 
thing,  and  that  chiefly  a  speculative  theology.  Not 
till  the  people  take  the  direction  of  the  Church  will 
it  be  directed  toward  life,  and  identified  with  daily 
duty,  with  work  and  play,  with  study,  literature, 
science,  art,  nature,  sanctifying  all  with  the  sense 
of  a  Divine  presence,  vitalizing  all,  and  giving  unity 
to  all. 

The  Church,  thus  far,  has  had  more  dread  of  nov- 
elty than  desire  for  progress.  It  remembers  the 
things  behind,  and  forgets  those  which  are  before. 
We  saw  recently  an  account  of  a  discussion  in  the 
House  of  Bishops  of  the  Church  of  England  on  a 
proposition  to  discontinue  the  use  of  the  Athanasian 
Creed  in  the  service  of  the  Church.  The  Archbishop 
of  Canterbury  gave  as  a  reason  for  retaining  it,  that 
no  one  believed  it,  and  so  it  could  do  no  harm.  Not 
one  of  the  bishops  contradicted  him ;  not  one  said 
that  he  believed  it.  Yet  many,  perhaps  the  majority, 
were  in  favor  of  retaining  it;  that  is,  they  are  in 
favor  of  continuing  to  say  in  the  solemn  worship  of 
God  what  they  disbelieve.  Their  reason  was,  that 
if  they  leave  this  lie  out  of  the  service,  they  may 


268  COMMON-SENSE  IN  RELIGION. 

be  asked  to  leave  out  something  else  which  is  true. 
This  is  what  may  be  called  the  "  entering- wedge  ar- 
gument," which  is  very  effectual  against  all  improve- 
ments. The  argument  is,  that  if  you  do  now  what  is 
right,  you  may  by  and  by  have  to  do  what  is  wrong. 
If  you  tell  the  truth  to-day,  you  may  have  to  tell  a 
lie  to-morrow.  If  you  admit  a  necessary  and  useful 
reform,  you  may  have  to  encounter  a  dangerous  revo- 
lution. 

But,  notwithstanding  all  this,  let  us  say  that  there 
are  many  hopeful  signs  of  progress  and  improvement 
in  the  Christian  Church.  In  New  York,  for  example, 
appear  every  week  two  newspapers,  both  nominally 
Orthodox,*  both  of  which  are  edited  in  the  interests 
of  a  broad,  free,  practical,  and  generous  Christianity. 
We  can  ask  nothing  larger  or  more  liberal  than^  these 
journals,  which  are  read  each,  every  week,  by  half  a 
million  of  people.  We  constantly  meet  with  ministers 
of  different  sects  who  are  in  full  sympathy  with  all 
progressive,  liberal,  rational,  and  practical  Christian- 
ity. The  time  has  come,  thank  God,  when  Unitari- 
ans and  Universalists  can  no  longer  monopolize  the 
title  of  liberal  and  rational  Christians.  Party  walls 
are  crumbling;  sects  are  becoming  confounded  and 
intermingled.      So   far  from   the   Christian   Church 

•  The  Independent  and  the  Christian  Union. 


THE  CHRISTIAN   CHURCH.  269 

being  outgrown  and  done  with,  it  is  more  needed  to- 
day than  ever,  to  be  a  centre  of  union  to  all  those 
who  desire  to  serve  God  by  serving  man.  Our  par- 
tial reforms  are  all  proving  themselves  inadequate 
and  unsatisfactory.  You  cannot  make  men  tem- 
perate by  temperance  societies  alone,  by  prohibition 
or  license  laws  alone.  You  cannot  cure  pauperism 
by  any  number  of  benevolent  societies,  or  poor-house 
laws.  You  cannot  permanently  help  the  wretched, 
the  suffering  classes,  the  vicious,  by  any  solitary 
efforts.  AU  these  are  good  as  far  as  they  go,  but 
they  will  not  wholly  cure  one  of  the  evils  of  society. 
This,  all  true  reformers  are  beginning  to  see.  They 
see  that  a  profounder  influence  is  needed,  —  an  influ- 
ence which  shall  make  society  one,  which  shall  do 
away  with  the  cold  separation  of  class  from  class, 
cure  the  selfish  isolation  of  our  lives,  and  place  us  in 
human  relations  one  with  another.  And  only  such 
an  institution  as  this  can  be  realized  when  the 
Christian  Church  shaU.  become  all  that  its  Master 
meant  it  to  be.  This  will  come  when  his  disciples 
shall  be  aU  one  with  him  as  he  is  one  with  God. 

We  must,  then,  fuUy  believe  in  the  Christian  Church 
as  the  one  great  need  of  our  time,  provided  that  we 
do  not  mean  by  this  any  little  Christian  sects  or 
great  Christian  sects,  however  much  they  may  call 


270  COMMON-SENSE  IN   RELIGION. 

themselves  by  high-sounding  names,  and  pretend  that 
they  alone  have  the  keys,  and  the  access  to  God.  By 
the  true  Church  let  us  understand  that  great  united, 
free,  practical  union  which  is  yet  to  come,  in  which 
there  shall  be  neither  Trinitarian  nor  Unitarian, 
Episcopalian  nor  Methodist,  but  only  those  who  love 
trod  and  man.  Not  till  that  great  union  of  human- 
ity arrives  will  the  world  be  converted  to  Christ  and 
every  knee  bow  to  him.  Not  while  sects  and  creeds 
arise  like  walls  to  divide  disciples  from  each  other 
can  the  world  see  the  face  of  Jesus  and  learn  to  love 
him.  But  the  hour  cometh,  and  now  is,  when  neither 
at  Jerusalem  nor  on  Gerizim,  neither  in  this  sect  nor 
in  that,  shall  men  worship  the  Father.  And  till  that 
time  comes  let  all  men  do  their  part  to  hasten  its 
coming,  not  by  standing  outside  of  the  Church  and 
finding  fault  with  it,  but  by  going  into  it,  and  trying 
to  make  it  what  it  ought  to  be. 


XII. 

FIVE   KINDS   OF   PIETY. 


XII. 
FIVE  KINDS  OF  PIETY. 

.  I  THINE  it  unfortunate  that  we  should  usually  con- 
sider piety  as  something  unnatural,  to  be  grafted  on 
human  nature  by  a  special  experience.  We  must 
therefore  begin  by  showing  that  all  men  have  in 
them  the  elements  of  piety ;  that  all  men  have  also 
the  power  of  cultivating  it;  and  that  it  is  only  by 
this  culture  of  piety  that  man  can  advance  or  make 
real  progress  in  any  department,  either  in  this  world 
or  any  other. 

Piety  means  love  to  God;  but  then,  each  man's 
idea  of  God  differs  from  that  of  every  other  man.  By 
God  we  mean  the  highest  we  know,  the  wisest  wis- 
dom w^  know,  the  best  goodness  we  know,  the  ten- 
derest  love  we  know ;  and  aU  these  carried  to  their  per- 
fection in  one  infinitely  wise  and  good,  holy,  loving, 
and  lovely  Being.  But  some  men's  idea  of  wisdom 
is  more  profound  than  that  of  other  men.  Some 
men's  idea  of  goodness  is  more  elevated  than  that  of 
other  men  ;  therefore  their  ideas  of  God  must  greatly 
differ. 

12*  B 


274  COMMON-SENSE  IN   RELIGION. 

A  missionary,  born  in  the  innocence  of  a  New  Eng- 
land village,  educated  in  our  schools,  churches,  and 
colleges,  who  has  been  taught  uprightness  of  soul  by 
the  sight  of  his  father's  perfect  integrity,  who  has 
been  taught  purity  of  heart  by  the  knowledge  of  a 
mother's  saintly  virtues,  goes  at  last  to  preach  to 
cannibals  in  the  Feejee  Islands,  and  teach  them  the 
worship  of  the  true  God.  They  are  docile,  we  will 
suppose,  to  his  instructions.  They  say,  "  He  is  a  good 
man ;  he  has  come  a  great  way  to  teach  us."  So  they 
accept  his  doctrines,  listen  to  his  prayers,  repeat  them 
after  him,  join  his  church  if  he  asks  them  to  do  so, 
are  baptized,  profess  religion,  and  are  sincerely  de- 
sirous to  believe  and  do  all  he  says.  But  their  idea 
of  God  is  not  and  cannot  be  the  same  as  his,  because 
their  idea  of  goodness  cannot  be  the  same.  They  have 
been  taught  treachery,  cruelty,  licentiousness,  from 
childhood,  by  all  surrounding  influences ;  he  has  been 
taught  the  opposite.  They  worship,  nominally,  the 
same  God ;  but  they  and  he  worship,  really,  two  very 
different  beings.  He  lifts  them  indeed  to  a  higher 
idea  of  God  by  his  own  life  more  than  by  his  words ; 
for  human  goodness  is  the  best  mediator  of  Divine 
goodness.  But,  lift  them  as  much  as  he  may,  he  can 
never  lift  them  so  high  as  to  see  exactly  the  same 
Being  whom  he  sees  himself. 


FIVE  KINDS   OF  PIETY.  275 

We  love  God  when  we  love  the  highest  and  best 
thing  we  know ;  that  is,  when  we  look  up,  not  down  ; 
up  to  the  Infinite,  not  down  to  the  finite;  up  to 
goodness,  not  down  to  wickedness ;  up  to  truth,  not 
down  to  error.  By  thus  looking  up  to  what  is  higher 
and  better  than  ourselves  we  refresh  our  souls,  we 
purify  our  hearts,  we  open  them  so  that  Divine  in- 
fluences come  in. 

A  man  of  piety,  therefore,  is  essentially  one  who 
beKeves  in  and  who  loves  goodness.  A  man  without 
piety  is  one  who  either  does  not  believe  in  it  or 
does  not  love  it.  The  natural  culture  of  piety, 
therefore,  consists  in  looking  up,  not  down,  —  looking 
up  to  good  things,  not  down  to  evil  things ;  in  con- 
templating truth  rather  than  error,  right  rather  than 
wTong,  nobleness  rather  than  meanness.  Every  good 
and  generous  act  done  by  man  makes  it  easier  to 
love  God  and  to  believe  in  him ;  every  lie  we  tell, 
every  act  of  dishonesty  we  perform,  makes  trust  in 
God  more  difficult,  not  only  to  ourselves,  but  tb 
others.  Such  great  scandals  as  have  recently  oc- 
curred in  the  financial  world  not  only  make  men 
doubt  of  human  honesty  more,  but  also  distrust 
Divine  truth.  Every  bad  action  which  men  do  makes 
humanity  seem  less  lovely,  and  so  makes  it  harder 
to  love,  not  only  the  brother  we  have  seen,  but  also 
the  God  we  have  not  seen. 


276  COMMON-SENSE  IN   RELIGION. 

We  see  why  piety  is  essential  to  all  real  worth. 
A  man  without  piety  is  only  a  part  of  a  man,  and  is 
incapable  of  growing  into  anything  better.  A  man 
who  never  looks  up  to,  adores,  reverences  superior 
goodness,  has  in  him  no  spring  of  improvement. 

But  there  are  different  kinds  of  piety,  some  higher 
and  better  than  the  rest.  These  we  wiU  now  pro- 
ceed to  consider. 

I  might  omit  the  piety  of  fear,  because  this  is  no 
piety  at  all.  It  has  been  believed  sometimes  that 
the  root  of  all  religion  is  fear.  Lucretius,  the  Ro- 
man poet,  who  was  an  atheist,  held  this  view.  Many 
infidels  now  contend  that  all  religion  is  fear  of  God, 
and  that  only  by  getting  rid  of  religion  can  we  es- 
cape the  dominion  of  this  slavish  superstition.  No 
Christian  holds  this  view.  All  Christians  teach  that 
we  are  not  truly  converted  till  we  love  God.  But 
many  think  we  must  begin  the  religious  life  by  fear ; 
that  fear  of  hell  is  th'G  necessary  step  toward  the  joy 
of  heaven.  And  this  element  of  fear,  which  plays  so 
large  a  part  in  the  beginnings  of  religion,  in  the  first 
awakenings  and  convictions  of  the  soul,  is  apt  to 
hold  its  dominion  all  through,  and  is  never  quite 
transformed  into  love. 

Fear  is  a  mighty  motive,  and  produces  great  re- 
sults.    The  fear  of  the  Lord  may  often  be  the  be- 


FIVE  KINDS  OF  PIETY.  277 

ginning  of  wisdom,  or  right  conduct.  But  we  can 
safely  say  that  it  cannot  exist  as  an  element  in  true 
piety.  We  may  be  afraid  of  sin,  and  ought  to  be. 
We  may  be  afraid  of  temptation,  afraid  of  ourselves ; 
but  we  must  not  be  afraid  of  God.  "  Perfect  love 
casts  out  fear,"  even  fear  of  sin  and  fear  of  tempta- 
tion ;  and  the  first  spark  of  genuine  piety  casts  out 
the  fear  of  God.  If  I  am  afraid  of  any  one,  I 
cannot  love  liim.  Love  creates  confidence,  and  so 
casts  out  fear.  We  may  confidently  say,  therefore, 
that  the  love  of  God  which  has  fear  mixed  with  it 
is  of  the  very  lowest  kind. 

Next  above  this,  very  universal  in  heathen  re- 
ligions, and  not  uncommon  in  Christian  religions,  is 
a  sacramental  and  litui'gic  piety,  chiefly  sentimental, 
which  affects  the  soul  like  a  strain  of  music  or  the 
perfume  of  flowers.  This  kind  of  piety  prevails 
most  in  the  sacramental  sects.  It  depends  much  on 
association  and  circumstances;  it  rises  high  in  an 
oratory,  where  the  dim  religious  light  comes  through 
a  painted  window  and  falls  upon  a  hassock  of  crim- 
son velvet;  higher  still  in  a  grand  cathedral,  amid 
gorgeous  ceremonies  and  superb  music.  This  kind 
of  piety  is  a  good  step  toward  something  higher ;  it 
is  one  of  the  landings  on  the  stairway  of  ascent  to 
God.      It  is  well  sometimes  to  bathe  one's  soul  in 


S78  COMMON-SENSE  IN   RELIGION. 

this  religious  atmosphere  of  forms  and  ceremonies. 
I  have  often  sat  in  Catholic  churches,  and  listened 
to  the  solemn  music,  seen  the  procession  of  priests  in 
their  vestments,  and  watched  the  colored  light  falling 
through  ancient  painted  glass  upon  kneeling  marble 
figures  and  richly  carved  pulpits.  One  dreams  a 
religious  dream  in  these  places,  which  is  sweet  and 
helpful.  These  forms  and  ceremonies  are  useful 
accessories  to  piety,  provided  one  does  not  consider 
them  as  essentials.  But  when  we  regard  any  par- 
ticular forms  of  worship,  any  particular  church,  as 
of  vital  importance,  we  relapse  out  of  Christianity 
into  heathenism  or  into  Judaism.  Then  a  man  puts 
church  and  ceremony  in  place  of  God,  and  worships 
not  the  Divine  Spirit,  but  the  material  form.  There 
is  a  good  deal  of  this  heathen  and  Jewish  piety 
left  in  Christianity,  especially  in  the  sacramental 
churches. 

Next  comes  an  emotional  piety,  which  depends 
on  religious  excitement.  It  requires  sympathy,  and 
cannot  live  alone.  It  is  awakened  by  earnest  ap- 
peals and  exhortations,  by  flaming  images  of  danger 
and  ruin,  by  glorious  visions  of  celestial  joy.  It 
rises  to  high  tide  in  a  revival,  and  floods  the  whole 
country  with  its  wide-flowing  waters.  Then  it  sinks 
away,  and  leaves  great  marshes  with  stagnant  pools 


FIVE  KINDS   OF  PIETY.  279' 

here  and  there  between.  This  kind  of  piety  is  most 
fully  developed  in  the  Methodist  Church,  as  the 
sacramental  piety  is  chiefly  in  the  Eoman  Catholic 
and  Episcopal  Churches. 

Then  there  is  a  doctrinal  piety,  in  which  fear 
and  hope  are  mingled,  which  has  its  root  in  strong 
doctrine.  The  two  constituents  of  this  are  an  out- 
ward hell  and  an  outward  heaven.  The  feeling 
toward  God  is  such  as  we  have  seen  entertained 
by  a  timid  wife  toward  a  tyrannical,  arbitrary  hus- 
band. There  is  a  real,  though  low,  sentiment  of 
love  in  it,  made  up  of  reverence  for  power,  awe  for 
will,  and  admiration  for  greatness.  This  is  the 
piety  which  comes  from  Calvinism  pure  and  simple. 

There  is  still  another  form  of  piety,  which  is 
founded  on  the  sight  of  God's  wisdom  and  good- 
ness as  seen  in  nature  and  Providence.  In  it  God 
seems  a  beneficent  law,  a  grand  and  wise  order,  a 
kind,  overruling  providence,  a  divinity  around  us 
and  within  us.  The  sources  of  this  piety  are  God's 
works  in  nature,  studied  reverentially  and  pro- 
foundly. The  priests  of  this  religion  are  men  of 
science,  actuated  by  the  pure  love  of  truth.  There 
is  a  certain  scientific  sanctity  about  such  men  which 
we  cannot  but  admire.  They  are  unworldly  men, 
devoting  life  to   the   service   of  truth ;  careless   of 


280  COMMON-SENSE  IN   RELIGION. 

wealth,  ease,  comfort;  going  to  Brazil,  Cape  Horn, 
Australia,  the  Arctic  regions,  the  burning  and  pes- 
tilential plains  of  Africa,  in  pursuit  of  knowledge. 
They  spend  long  years  in  painful  study,  minute  ob- 
servation, laborious  calculation,  to  discover  God's 
laws.  This  is  the  religion  of  men  of  science,  noble 
and  pure.  Its  defect  often  is  not  to  see  God  with- 
in the  soul  as  well  as  without ;  and  not  to  recognize 
God  as  a  personal  friend  as  well  as  an  infinite 
order. 

In  all  these  forms  of  piety  there  is  something 
good  and  true.  The  imaginative  and  sentimental 
piety  of  the  High  Church  is  true,  for  we  are  partly 
beings  of  imagination.  The  emotional  piety  of 
the  Methodists  is  true,  for  we  are  also  beings  of 
sympathy  and  feeling.  Calvinistic  piety,  which 
sees  in  God  an  infinite  personal  will,  a  sovereign 
ruler,  certainly  awakens  reverence  and  zeal.  The 
religion  of  Calvin  has  done  a  great  work  in  eman- 
cipating the  soul  from  all  other  fear  than  the  fear 
of  God.  It  has  made  martyrs  and  confessors  of 
religious  and  civil  freedom  in  all  lands.  And  the 
piety  of  science,  founded  on  a  sight  of  law,  is  also 
very  valuable,  though  much  undervalued.  It  cre- 
ates a  genial  warmth,  pervading  all  of  life,  and 
moulding  modestly  and  gradually  the  whole  charac- 


FIVE  KINDS  OF  PIETY.  281 

ter.  Latent  heat  is  just  as  important  as  uncom- 
bined  caloric;  and  so  that  latent,  pervasive  piety, 
which  sees  divine  laws  in  all  of  life,  is  as  impor- 
tant as  the  more  demonstrative  kinds. 

If  these  varieties  of  piety  could  be  combined 
in  one  kind,  omitting  their  defects,  we  should  have 
the  highest  kind  of  all  If  we  could  have  a  sol- 
emn awe  and  fear  of  sin  and  its  consequences,  as  the 
basis  of  religion;  beautiful,  harmonious  rites  and 
ceremonies  as  the  helps  to  piety;  the  sympathy 
of  human  hearts,  social  meetings,  brotherly  fellow^ 
ship,  as  the  daily  food  of  piety;  and  the  broadest 
science,  brought  into  the  Church  instead  of  being 
left  in  the  college,  teaching  us  to  see  God  in  the 
majestic  movements  of  the  stars,  in  the  delicate 
anatomy  of  the  flower,  in  the  molecular  motions 
and  forces  of  chemical  atoms,  in  the  long  processes 
of  geology,  —  by  such  a  combination  we  should  have 
the  highest  piety  of  aU. 

But  how  can  this  come  ?  My  own  profound  con^ 
viction  is  that  it  can  only  come  through  the  piety 
taught  us  and  given  to  us  by  Jesus  Christ.  Its 
essence  is  the  life  of  God  in  the  soul,  personally 
communicated  through  Jesus,  the  providential  Me- 
diator, and  redeeming  us  by  its  power  from  aU  eviL 
It  finds  God  within  us,  as  well  as  around  us. 


282  COMMON-SENSE  IN  RELIGION. 

The  peculiarity  of  this  piety  is  that  it  is  child- 
like. "  No  man  cometh  to  the  Father  but  by  me,'* 
said  Jesus.  The  world  never  comes  to  see  God  as 
a  father  except  through  Christ.  It  had  seen 
him  as  a  power,  as  an  order,  as  a  sovereign  ruler 
and  judge;  but  it  had  not  seen  him  as  a  father. 
With  Jesus  there  entered  into  human  life  that  sweet 
conception  of  an  infinite  parental  love,  of  a  Divine 
father  and  mother,  both  in  one.  Therefore  he  said, 
"  Except  ye  be  converted  [or  changed],  and  become 
as  little  children,  ye  cannot  see  the  kingdom  of 
God." 

It  is  the  childlike  piety  which  unites  in  itself  all 
the  rest.  The  child  is  not  in  the  least  afraid  of 
its  parents,  if  they  are  what  they  ought  to  be ;  but 
it  looks  up  to  them  with  reverence,  and  is  afraid 
of  offending  them.  That  is  all  the  fear  there .  is  in 
it.  The  child  does  not  come  to  its  parents  in  a 
formal  way,  or  make  set  speeches  to  them,  but  wiU 
bring  them  a  bunch  of  flowers  on  their  birthdays, 
and  will  have  method  in  its  love,  if  not  form. 
The  child  does  not  gush  into  feeling  or  get  wild 
with  excitement  about  its  love  to  its  mother,  but 
neither  is  it  cold,  stiff,  or  hard.  It  is  natural  and 
spontaneous.  If  it  feels  like  laughing,  it  laughs; 
if  like  weeping,  it  weeps. 


FIVE  KINDS   OF  PIETY.  283 

If  we  become  thus  like  little  children  in  the 
presence  of  the  Eternal  Father,  we  shall  fulfil  all 
other  pieties  in  that  of  Jesus. 

Let  us  trust  God  as  a  child  trusts  its  parents. 
Then  we  shall  have  essential  faith.  A  child  trusts 
every  one,  at  first  and  naturally,  for  it  is  taught  to 
do  so  by  the  love  which  surrounds  infancy.  Little 
children  are  usually  safe  everywhere,  for  all  persons 
take  care  of  them.  The  room  where  a  new-born 
infant  sleeps  is  the  sacred  chamber,  the  sanctuary 
in  the  house.  Every  one  who  enters  steps  softly, 
as  on  holy  ground.  All  persons  stand  around  the 
cradle  admiringly  and  wonderingly,  as  if  there  had 
never  been  a  child  before  in  the  world.  The  happy 
mother  clasps  it  to  her  heart  in  an  ecstasy  of  de- 
light. Every  child  is  like  the  infant  Jesus ;  though 
born  in  a  manger,  it  has  a  star  of  hope  hanging 
over  its  birthplace.  Angels  of  love  chant  its  wel- 
come. Simple  shepherds  (or  at  least  others  as 
simple  as  shepherds)  come  to  look  at  it  and  ad- 
mire it,  and  wise  men  from  the  east,  west,  north, 
and  south  make  pilgrimages  to  its  crib.  Now  a 
child,  fed  on  the  milk  of  love  from  the  beginning, 
naturally  begins  by  faith.  It  trusts  all  the  world, 
and  its  trust  usually  makes  all  persons  its  protec- 
tors.     Among  the   pictures   I   saw  recently  in  an 


284  COMMON-SENSE  IN  RELIGION. 

artists'  exhibition,  tlie  one  which  took  my  fancy 
the  most  was  one  by  Eastman  Johnson,  of  a  little 
child  who  had  just  come  out  of  the  cold,  warming 
its  hands  before  a  stove.  Why  there  should  be 
anything  so  very  interesting  in  that  it  is  difficult 
to  say.  I  suppose  it  was  because  it  was  a  real 
child.  What  interests  us  in  the  child  is  its  child- 
hood, its  trusting  nature,  its  inexperience,  its  won- 
derful introduction  into  the  novelties  of  existence, 
its  happy  confidence  in  the  things  of  heaven  and 
earth. 

Now,  we  are  all  little  children  in  this  sense.  The 
patriarch  Methuseleh,  who  lived  nearly  one  thou- 
sand years,  and  was  then  probably  drowned  in  the 
flood,  was  an  infant  in  the  sight  of  the  angels  and 
archangels,  who  have  lived  many  millions  of  years, 
and  have  seen  the  history  of  the  whole  solar  sys- 
tem since  it  was  developed  out  of  a  nebula.  No 
doubt  they  stand  around  and  look  at  us  as  we 
stand  and  look  at  the  little  child  warming  his 
hands  at  the  stove,  or  opening  his  large  eyes  of 
wonder  in  his  cradle. 

We  are  to  be  like  little  children  by  trusting  in 
God,  in  his  angels,  in  the  order  of  the  universe, 
with  the  simple  confidence  of  children.  This  is 
the  root  of  Christian  piety, — to  look  up  to  goodness. 


FIVE  KINDS   OF  PIETY.  285 

not  down  to   evil.     Out  of    this  root  grow  hope, 
courage,  joy  in  life,  love  of  truth,  the  sweet  seren- 
ity of  being,  which  makes  us  little  children  all  our 
days,  not  slaves  to  fear,  anxiety,  or  the  world. 
Wordsworth  says, — 

....  "The  child  is  father  to  the  man; 
And  I  could  wish  my  days  to  be 
Bound  each  to  each  by  natural  piety." 

Natural  piety,  not  artificial  piety.  It  is  a  piety 
which  grows  up  naturally  out  of  a  childlike  faith 
into  a  manly  hope  and  an  angelic  love.  It  is  a 
piety  w^hich  sees  God,  not  merely  at  church  on 
Sundays,  but  every  day;  which  sees  him  in  nature, 
life,  work,  play,  joy,  and  sorrow.  It  is  a  piety  which 
sees  Jesus,  not  merely  as  a  past  Saviour,  who  lived 
once  in  Palestine  and  worked  miracles,  but  as  a 
present  friend,  unseen  with  the  outward  eye,  but 
near  to  every  soul  which  loves  him.  This  natural 
piety  loves  man  because  it  loves  God,  and  loves 
God  because  it  loves  man ;  "  for  he  who  loveth  not 
his  brother  whom  he  hath  seen,  how  can  he  love 
God  whom  he  hath  not  seen?" 

Now,  the  old  law  made  it  a  duty  to  love  God 
and  man.  Jesus  said  that  the  first  of  all  the  Mo- 
saic Commandments  was  to  love  God  with  all  one's 
heart,  soul,  and  strength,  and  the  second  was  to 


286  COMMON-SENSE  IN  EELIGION. 

love  one's  neighbor  as  one's  self.  But  who  can 
love  as  a  duty  ?  Can  we  love  any  one  because  we 
ought  to  love  him,  if  he  does  not  appear  to  us 
lovely  ?  It  is  a  great  mistake  to  suppose  that 
piety  can  be  taught  by  preaching  sermons  about 
piety,  by  showing  its  excellence,  its  reasonableness, 
and  the  like.  We  can  only  love  God  when  he 
seems  lovely  to  us ;  we  can  only  love  man  when 
man  seems  lovely.  Jesus  makes  us  love  God  by 
making  God  lovely.  He  makes  him  lovely  to  us 
because  he  was  so  to  himself.  To  Jesus,  God  was 
the  perfect  friend,  the  friend  of  all  his  children, 
who  loved  his  enemies,  who  sent  his  sunshine  and 
showers  on  the  evil  and  unthankful  no  less  than 
on  the  obedient  and  pure.  He  was  the  being  who 
saw  the  sinner  a  great  way  off,  and  had  more  joy 
over  one  sinner  who  repented  than  over  ninety  and 
nine  who  did  not  need  repentance.  Therefore,  where- 
ever  Jesus  went  he  carried  sunshine  and  brought 
down  heaven  to  earth.  The  divine  love  of  a  fa- 
therly God  looked  out  of  his  eyes  and  trembled 
in  the  tender  accents  of  his  voice.  From  his  touch 
went  forth  healing,  and  forgiveness  of  sin  came 
easily  from  his  lips.  A  sweet  peace  breathed  around 
him;  it  was  a  perpetual  Sabbath  wherever  he 
came,   in   which   men   could   rest   their   souls    for- 


FIVE  KINDS   OF  PIETY.  287 

ever  and  forever.  Everything  became  lovely  as  he 
looked  at  it.  God  was  a  being  of  divine  loveliness, 
not  a  stern  king  or  judge,  as  the  Jews  too  often 
regarded  him.  He  was  not  a  mere  law  of  nature 
or  order  of  the  universe,  as  science  frequently  re- 
gards him.  But  God  in  Christ  is  a  loving  order, 
a  fatherly  law,  a  personal  friend,  yet  of  unknown 
depth  and  height.  He  is  serenely  majestic  as  the 
central  power  in  the  universe,  holding  aU  worlds 
in  the  hollow  of  his  hand.  Yet  he  is  inwardly 
present  to  the  heart  of  his  humblest  child,  when- 
ever, in  sincere  prayer  and  penitence,  his  child 
opens  his  heart  to  him. 

When  we  look  up  adoringly  and  trustingly  to 
such  a  God  as  this,  we  are  able  also  to  look  down 
lovingly  to  whatever  seems  low,  unworthy,  and  poor 
in  this  world.  Those  who  love  man  kindly,  learn  to 
love  God.  Those  who  love  God  truly,  are  able  also 
to  love  man,  his  creature  and  his  child.  If  God  can 
love  men,  such  as  we  are,  with  all  the  faults  and  sins 
of  which  we  are  too  conscious,  we  can  love  others 
who  also  are  weak  and  sinful.  If  he  has  faith  in 
us,  we  can  have  faith  in  them.  If  he  can  hope 
for  us,  we  can  also  hope  for  them.  If  he  forgives 
us,  we  also  can  forgive  each  other.  Thus  out  of  the 
childlike  love  for  God,  which  Jesus  teaches,  spring 


288  COMMON-SENSE  IN  EELIGION. 

naturally  all  human  charities  and  philanthropies. 
Thus  "the  child  is  father  to  the  man."  Thus  all 
the  pieties  are  united  at  last  in  one.  The  piety 
which  is  reverence  and  awe,  the  piety  which  is  emo- 
tion and  sympathy,  the  piety  which  is  worship  and 
sacrament,  the  piety  which  contemplates  in  science 
the  God  of  nature,  —  all  are  fulfilled  and  harmon- 
ized in  the  faith  of  Jesus  Christ.  He  brings  us  to 
his  Father,  "  in  whom  we  live,  and  move,  and  have 
our  being;  who  is  above  all,  and  through  all,  and 
in  us  all,"  our  strength  and  song,  and  our  hope  of 
salvation. 


XIII. 

JESUS   A   MEDIATOR, 


13 


XIII. 
JESUS  A  MEDIATOR, 

The  interest  concerning  the  history  and  character 
of  Jesus  the  Christ  was  never  greater  than  now. 
Witness  the  popularity  of  the  studies  in  relation  to 
his  life,  —  of  the  works  by  Strauss,  Eenan,  Furness, 
"  Ecce  Homo,"  "  Ecce  Deus,"  and  the  like. 

The  life  of  Jesus  will  gi"ow  more  interesting  as  it 
is  studied  more  as  a  manifestation  of  human  nature ; 
that  is,  as  a  revelation  of  man  no  less  than  of  God. 

It  will  be  found,  perhaps,  that  the  wonderful  works, 
knowledge,  character  of  Jesus  are  not  unnatural,  but 
natural ;  that  they  are  not  exceptional,  but  prophetic. 
What  he  was,  aH  men  may  perhaps  become,  and 
one  day  shall  become.  He,  perhaps,  is  the  type  of 
humanity,  the  example  of  its  fully  unfolded  condi- 
tion. 

Whether  this  be  so  or  not,  it  is  certain  that  Jesus 
came  to  help  others  to  become  what  he  was.  So  far 
from  regarding  him  as  exceptional,  the  Gospels  and 
Epistles  apparently  teach  that  everything  Jesus  was 
we  are  to  be.     Those  who  commune  with  him  by 


292  COMMON-SENSE   IN    RELIGION. 

faith  shall  gradually  be  changed  into  the  same  image, 
and  grow  up  into  the  stature  of  Jesus  Christ. 

If  we  will  leave  aside  for  a  little  while  the  never- 
ending  questions  concerning  the  nature,  person,  de- 
ity, and  divinity  of  Jesus,  and  study,  instead,  his  hu- 
manity, it  may  lead  the  Church  to  a  common  ground 
of  faith. 

Whether  Jesus  was  or  was  not  God  has  always 
been  a  question.  But  no  one  has  ever  questioned 
that  he  was  a  man.  On  that  point  the  Scripture  is 
too  plain  to  be  doubted.  If,  then,  he  was  a  man,  let 
us  see  what  sort  of  a  man  he  was.  This  course  of 
thought  may  lead  us  up  till  we  shall,  perhaps,  dis- 
cover in  what  sense  he  was  Divine.  Let  us  begin 
with  what  we  know  best,  and  go  on  to  that  which 
we  are  not  so  well  acquainted  with. 

It  would  seem  from  the  New  Testament  that 
Jesus  had  no  incommunicable  poVers  or  qualities. 
What  he  had  was  his  to  communicate,  not  to  keep. 
For  example  :  — 

Jesus  had  the  power  of  working  miracles.  But 
this  power  he  declares  to  be  one  which  his  disciples 
shall  also  possess :  "  Greater  works  than  these  shall 
ye  do,  because  I  go  to  my  Father." 

Jesus  was  one  with  God.  But  he  says  of  his  disci- 
ples, "  That  they  may  be  one,  even  as  we  are  one :  I 
in  them,  and  thou  in  me." 


JESUS   A   MEDIATOR.  293 

Jesus  had  power  on  earth  to  forgive  sins.  But  he 
says  to  his  disciples,  "Whosesoever  sins  ye  remit, 
they  are  remitted  to  them." 

Jesus  was  a  perfect  example  of  human  goodness. 
But  he  says  to  his  disciples,  "  Be  ye  perfect,  even  as 
your  Father  in  heaven  is  perfect." 

Jesus  knew  all  things.  But  it  is  said  of  his  disci- 
ples, "  Ye  have  an  unction  from  the  Holy  Ghost,  and 
know  all  things." 

Jesus  was  sinless.  But  the  Apostle  says,  "He 
who  is  born  of  God  cannot  commit  sin." 

Jesus  is  to  be  judge  of  the  earth.  But  Paul  says 
that  "  the  saints  shall  judge  the  world  and  men  and 
angels." 

In  Jesus  dwelt  all  the  fulness  of  the  Godhead 
bodily.  The  Apostle  prays  for  the  Ephesians  that 
they  "  may  be  filled  with  all  the  fulness  of  God." 

Jesus  had  glory  with  the  Father  before  the  founda- 
tion of  the  world.  But  he  says  of  his  disciples,  "  The 
glory  thou  gavest  me  I  have  given  them." 

God  sent  Jesus  to  be  Saviour  and  Eedeemer  of  the 
world.  But  he  says  to  his  disciples,  "  As  my  Father 
has  sent  jne,  even  so  send  I  you." 

Such  passages  as  these  show  that,  according  to 
the  New  Testament,  Jesus  came  to  be  a  medium 
to  transmit  to  his  fellow-men  whatever  he  himself 


294  COMMON-SENSE  IN   RELIGION. 

received  from  God.  All  power  was  given  to  him 
in  heaven  and  earth  for  the  purposes  of  his  mission 
and  work.  God  gave  him  power  over  all  flesh  to 
give  eternal  life  to  as  many  as  were  given  to  him. 
He  recognized  always  and  everywhere  his  entire 
dependence  on  God  for  all  he  had.  It  was  all 
given  to  him.  The  Son  could  do  nothing  of  him- 
self; and  what  he  received,  he  received  in  order  to 
give.  He  made  of  himself  a  pure  channel  through 
which  God's  life  and  truth  might  flow. 

This  is  what  we  mean  by  calling  Jesus  a  medi- 
ator. His  work  was  to  bring  man  to  God  and  to 
make  them  one.  This  was  his  atoning  work, — 
making  God  and  man  one.  To  atone  is  to  make 
at-one,  to  reconcile.  By  making  man  at  one  with 
God  he  makes  all  other  atonements  possible.  Earth 
and  heaven,  nature  and  grace,  piety  and  morality, 
reason  and  revelation,  science  and  faith;  these  and 
all  other  antagonisms  can  be  reconciled  when  the 
most  radical  antagonism  is  atoned. 

Now  there  are  three  views  concerning  mediators 
and  mediation. 

The  first  is  that  of  Theodore  Parker  and  his 
school,  who  say  that  we  need  no  mediators  be- 
tween us  and  God;  that  we  can  all  have  immedi- 
ate access  to  God  at  all  times  and  lender  all  cir- 


JESUS  A  MEDIATOR.  295 

cumstances.  To  tMs  view  I  oppose  the  fact  that 
multitudes  are  so  low  down  and  far  off  that  they 
have  not  any  faith  or  any  conception  of  the  true 
God,  and  must  be  helped  up  by  some  teaching  and 
influence;  and  by  the  other  fact  that  the  univei-se 
is  full  of  mediators  and  mediation,  —  that  mediation 
is  a  universal  law. 

The  second  view  is  that  of  those  who  can  see 
God  only  in  Christ;  who  never  dare  to  go  to  God 
without  this  mediation.  They  assume  that  God  out 
of  Christ  is  only  vengeance,  and  that,  unless  they 
put  the  word  "  Christ "  at  the  end  of  every  prayer, 
God  win  not  hear  them;  that  unless  they  say 
that  they  expect  to  be  saved  by  the  merits  of 
Christ  they  will  not  be  saved.  To  this  view  I  ob- 
ject that  it  destroys  the  very  purpose  of  media- 
tion; that  Christ  ceases  to  be  a  mediator  when  he 
does  not  bring  us  to  God;  that  the  universal  law 
of  mediation  is  that  the  mediator  comes  not  to 
separate  two  parties,  but  to  unite  them.  When- 
ever the  mediator  does  his  work  effectually,  he  then 
disappears  and  ceases  to  be  seen  at  alL  It  is  this 
false  view  of  mediation  which  has  made  it  odious, 
because  it  makes  the  Christ  come  between  God  and 
the  creature  not  to  unite,  but  to  separate. 

I  can  well  understand  the  nature  of  the  objection 


296  COMMON-SENSE  IN   RELIGION. 

to  this  sort  of  mediation.  This  kind  of  mediator 
I  should  also  oppose.  When  we  think  of  the  Christ 
as  arbitrarily  appointed  to  stand  between  us  and 
God,  we  make  his  work  a  mere  form,  a  kind  of 
religious  etiquette.  Just  as  earthly  princes  have 
a  ceremonial  of  reception,  and  all  who  wish  to  see 
them  must  be  introduced  by  the  proper  officers, 
according  to  a  certain  formality,  so  many  suppose 
it  to  be  intended  by  Scripture  to  make  of  Jesus 
this  formal  mediator.  We  may  come  to  God  ever 
so  sincerely,  in  love  and  penitence,  but  he  does 
not  hear  us  unless  we  have  this  ticket  in  our 
hand.  Naturally  this  notion  is  carried  further,  and 
men  say  that  Christ  has,  in  like  manner,  appointed 
a  certain  church,  with  a  certain  order  of  ministers, 
ritual,  ceremony,  all  in  the  technical  descent,  and 
unless  we  have  this  church's  ticket  in  our  hand 
we  cannot  come  to  Christ.  Over  and  over  again 
Jesus  has  denied  this  view.  "  The  true  worshipper 
must  worship  the  Father  in  spirit  and  in  truth." 
"Blessed  are  the  pure  in  heart,  for  they  shall  see 
God."  The  publican  who  said  "God  be  merciful 
to  me  a  sinner"  went  down  to  his  house  justified. 
Jesus  told  his  disciples  not  to  forbid  those  from 
casting  out  devils  who  followed  not  them,  who  did 
not  belong   to  his   outward   church.     He  described 


JESUS   A   MEDIATOR.  297 

how  in  the  last  day  the  heathen  who  had  never 
heard  of  him  should  yet  be  accepted  as  his  true 
disciples,  and  belong  to  his  kingdom. 

A  part  of  our  knowledge  is  immediate,  a  part  is 
mediate.  I  know  my  own  existence  and  the  ex- 
istence of  the  outer  world  immediately.  I  am  im- 
mediately conscious  of  my  own  freedom,  of  right 
and  wrong,  of  duty,  of  the  infinite  and  the  finite. 
But  I  have  no  immediate  knowledge  of  St.  Peters- 
burg, of  the  Pope,  of  the  Zendavesta,  of  the  Book 
of  Genesis,  of  the  future  life,  of  the  Battle  of  Bun- 
ker's HiU,  of  Julius  Csesar,  or  the  satellites  of  Jupi- 
ter. I  know  St.  Petersburg  through  the  mediation 
of  travellers  who  have  been  there  ;  I  know  the  Pope 
by  means  of  those  who  have  seen  him ;  I  know  the 
Zendavesta  and  Book  of  Genesis  by  the  mediation 
of  translations ;  I  know  Julius  Caesar  and  the  Bat- 
tle of  Bunker's  Hill  through  the  mediation  of  history; 
I  know  Jupiter's  satellites  through  the  mediation  of 
my  telescope. 

The  law  of  mediatr  '.n  is  that  the  mediator  is  for 
the  sake  of  the  immediate.  Mediation  is  means, 
and  the  means  are  for  the  sake  of  the  end.  If  we 
stop  in  the  means,  we  have  not  reached  the  end- 
When  we  are  away  from  God  we  need  a  medi- 
ator,  not  when   we   are  with  him.     When   I  feel 

13* 


298  COMMON-SENSE  IN  RELIGION. 

the  presence  of  God  I  do  not  need  Christ,  as  a  me- 
diator. When  I  feel  God's  peace  in  lay  soul,  his 
love  in  my  heart,  his  truth  in  my  conscience,  I  do 
not  need  to  find  Christ  to  lead  me  to  God.  I  am 
with  God  already. 

But  when  I  am  away  from  God ;  when  the  heav- 
ens look  dark,  and  my  conscience  is  clouded  with 
the  sense  of  sin ;  when  the  light  within  me  is  dark- 
ness ;  when  I  am  led  astray  by  appetite,  by  passion, 
by  selfish  will,  — then  I  need  Jesus  to  bring  me  back 
to  God.  Then  I  need  to  turn  to  him ;  to  think  of 
what  he  has  said  and  done  and  borne;  to  think 
of  his  gracious  promises,  of  his  love  for  sinners. 
All  this  brings  me  to  God. 

One  school  of  thought,  however,  rejects  the  whole 
notion  of  any  mediate  religion.  They  think  all 
religion  immediate,  a  direct  communication  from 
God  to  the  human  souL  They  say  we  can  go 
directly  to  God,  as  Jesus  did.  They  say  we  do 
not  wish  for  any  mediator  to  stand  between  ua 
and  God. 

But  suppose  a  person  should  say,  "I  do  not 
choose  to  have  any  mediator  between  me  and  my 
friend,  I  wish  to  speak  to  him  directly,  face  to 
face.  I  do  not  wish  for  a  go-between  to  come 
between  me  and  my  father,  between   me  and   my 


JESUS  A  MEDIATOR.  299 

wife  or  child."  You  would  probably  reply,  "This 
is  well,  provided  you  are  with  your  friend,  your 
father,  your  wife,  or  your  child.  But  if  you  are 
absent  from  them ;  if  they  are  in  Europe  and  you 
in  America,  they  in  New  Orleans  and  you  in  Bos- 
ton,—  you  may,  perhaps,  be  very  thankful  for  the 
mediation  of  the  post-office,  which  shall  carry  let- 
ters, of  a  friend  who  shall  bring  a  message,  of  a 
steamer  or  railroad-train  which  shall  convey  them 
to  you  or  you  to  them." 

It  would  seem,  therefore,  that,  though  a  medi- 
ator is  not  necessary  when  we  are  with  our  friend, 
mediation  may  be  necessary  when  we  are  absent 
from  him.  So  if  we  are  with  God  we  do  not  need 
a  mediator;  but,  being  often  away  from  God,  we 
may. 

But  to  this  it  may  be  replied  again,  "  In  the  in- 
stances given  there  were  material  obstacles  to  meet- 
ing. But  there  is  neither  space  nor  time  between 
us  and  God.  God  is  close  to  our  heart  always,  and 
we  have  only  to  turn  to  him  at  any  moment  to 
find  him.  So  your  illustrations  do  not  apply  to 
tlie  case." 

Take,  then,  a  different  illustration.  You  have  a 
friend  whom  you  love.  But  you  are  estranged  from 
your  friend;  a  misunderstanding  has  come  up  be- 


300  COMMON-SENSE  IN  RELIGION. 

tween  you.  Some  third  person  now  comes  between 
and  mediates;  some  wise  and  good  person,  capable 
of  understanding  you  both  and  explaining  each  to 
the  other.  He  then  is  a  mediator  to  reconcile  you 
and  make  you  at  one.  In  this  sense  Christ  medi- 
ates between  the  soul  and  God. 

God  is  always  near  to  us,  always  waiting  to  be 
gracious.  But  we  do  not  know  it,  or  do  not  believe 
it.  We  think  him  far  off,  far  away.  We  think  he 
is  angry  with  us  because  of  our  sin,  and  that  he 
will  not  forgive.  Jesus,  in  his  infinite  tenderness 
toward  the  sinner,  so  mediates  a  divine  tenderness 
that  we  are  now  able  to  believe  in  God's  love,  and 
can  come  to  him. 

The  law  of  mediation  is  one  of  the  most  univer- 
sal laws.  It  is  the  experience  of  all  our  life.  It 
is  the  condition  of  all  progress.  Life  flows  down 
from  God  through  countless  mediators.  Thought 
spreads  from  the  highest  intellect  to  the  lowest 
through  mediation. 

I  enter  a  primary  school.  I  find  a  young  girl 
there,  who  comes  every  day  to  sit  among  these 
little  things  and  teach  them.  She  is  refined,  intel- 
ligent, conscientious.  The  tones  of  her  voice  are 
sweet  as  she  talks  with  the  children.  They  come 
from  rude  homes.     There  they  hear  oaths,  and  see 


JESUS  A  MEDIATOR.  301: 

faces  red  with  anger,  and  listen  to  voices  harsh 
with  bad  passions.  Here  they  listen  to  gentle 
words,  and  wonderingly  they  perceive  that  there 
is  such  a  thing  as  kindness  in  the  world.  She 
opens  these  closed  intellects ;  she  wakes  these  tor- 
pid minds ;  she  warms  these  little  hearts.  She 
teaches  them  of  the  world  in  which  they  live,  of  its 
great  continents,  its  rolling  oceans,  its  vast  plains, 
its  majestic  mountains,  its  forests,  its  zones  of  ice 
and  snows,  of  burning  heat.  She  tells  them  of  the 
tribes  of  animals  which  roam  the  wilds,  of  strange 
fishes  which  swim  the  seas,  of  varieties  of  stones, 
trees,  flowers,  insects,  birds.  She  unfolds  to  them 
the  wonders  of  creation.  Then  she  takes  their 
little  hands  and  leads  them  back  through  the 
past  centuries  of  history.  She  shows  them  how 
this  country  was  planted,  and  how  it  has  grown 
to  be  what  it  is.  She  tells  them  of  Greece  and 
Kome  and  England.  She  opens  their  minds  and 
hearts,  and  is  the  mediator  between  them  and 
the  universe.  It  all  flows  through  her  mind  to 
theirs;  and  the  children  are  lifted  to  a  new  realm 
of  thought  and  love  while  they  look  and  listen  to 
her. 

When  evening  comes,  this  teacher,  tired  with  her 
task,  goes,  perhaps,  for  refreshment,  to  hear  a  lecture. 


2ld^  COMMON-SENSE  IN   RELIGION. 

or  to  listen  to  some  person  who  reads  Shakespeare. 
It  is  some  great  actor  or  reader,  who  is  able  to  inter- 
pret the  thought  of  this  wonderful  master  of  human 
nature.  He  mediates  Shakespeare  to  us.  As  we 
listen,  we  are  lifted  into  communion  with  this  mas- 
ter. We  had  the  book  at  home,  we  might  have  read 
it  to  ourselves ;  but  we  needed  a  mediator  between 
our  mind  and  the  mind  of  Shakespeare.  When  we 
have  read  it  alone,  much  seemed  unnatural,  foreign, 
strange.  But  now,  as  we  listen  to  that  impassioned 
voice,  we  enter  into  the  very  mind  of  Othello,  of 
Hamlet,  of  Lear.  We  feel  deep  down  into  our  hearts 
the  thrills  of  sympathy.  For  the  hour  we  are  Ham- 
let, we  are  Lear.  Our  sphere  of  human  experience  is 
enlarged.  We  are  taken  out  of  the  narrow  interests 
and  petty  cares  of  our  daily  life,  and  lifted,  by  this 
power  of  mediation,  into  intimate  communion  with 
the  foreign  and  the  far. 

So,  too,  music  opens  by  its  mediation  a  new  world. 
As,  when  one  rises  in  a  balloon,  the  earth  seems 
fading  away  from  under  him,  and  all  its  hard  outlines 
change  into  a  picture  ;  so,  as  we  listen  to  great  music, 
life  grows  transfigured,  the  weariness  of  years  falls 
from  us,  and  we  renew  our  youth,  our  hope,  our  love. 

What  a  mediator  is  language  !  Words,  those  airy 
nothings,  those  facile,  fleeting  sounds,  are  the  me- 


JESUS  A  MEDIATOR.  303 

diums  through  which  pass  from  man  to  man  all  the 
knowledge,  all  the  life,  of  humanity.  Without  words, 
no  civilization  were  possible  ;  we  should  still  be  sav- 
ages, no  better  than  brutes.  When  language  comes, 
when  the  thought  can  be  taken  out  of  the  mind  and 
put  into  this  box  which  we  call  a  word,  and  so  trans- 
mitted to  another  mind,  then  civilization  begins. 
All  knowledges,  all  purposes,  are  mediated  through, 
words. 

Books  are  mediators  between  the  past  and  the 
present,  the  great  and  the  small,  the  distant  and  the 
near.  These  are  the  treasuries  into  which  all  the 
true  riches  of  the  world  are  garnered.  I  go  and  sit 
among  my  books,  and  I  have  the  society  of  the  wise 
and  good  of  all  times.  I  wish  to  know  what  Plato, 
Montaigne,  or  Bacon  think  of  such  a  matter :  they 
come  to  give  me  their  best  thoughts.  Here  stands 
an  encyclopaedia,  there  an  atlas,  here  one  of  the  great 
poets.  I  ask  for  anything  which  I  want,  and  it 
comes.  If  I  wish  to  know  about  Arabia,  or  Egypt, 
or  Central  Tartary,  I  find  a  book  of  travels  which 
tells  me  all  I  seek.  In  my  book  I  ascend  the  Nile, 
I  go  through  Abyssinia,  I  see  the  wild  beasts  and 
strange  tribes  of  men,  without  fatigue,  expense,  or 
danger.  I  penetrate  the  torrid  zone,  and  dread  no 
fever.     I  travel  with  Livingstone  through  Southern 


304  COMMON-SENSE  IN  RELIGION. 

Africa,  with  Hue  I  go  into  the  Buddhist  convents,  or 
with  Kane  I  pass  a  winter  amid  the  lonely  beauty 
of  .Greenland's  icy  mountains.  So  do  books  mediate 
to  me  all  human  experience.  So  is  the  printing- 
press  the  mediator  of  all  thought. 

Nature  is  a  great  mediator  between  God  and  the 
soul.  It  weaves  for  God  the  garment  by  which  we 
see  him.  It  shows  us  intelligence  everywhere,  all 
things  fitted  for  each  other,  nothing  fair  or  good 
alone.  Look  at  the  sun  fitted  to  the  earth,  the  earth 
adapted  to  the  sun.  In  the  spring  millions  of  seeds 
touched  by  his  rays  awake  to  warmth  and  life.  In 
the  summer  millions  of  insects,  birds,  beasts,  are  fed 
by  these  seeds,  which  have  become  plants.  I  see 
this  great  sun  giving  light  by  which  all  creatures 
may  see,  and  all  creatures  down  to  the  lowest  orders 
are  provided  with  eyes  adapted  to  the  sunlight.  I 
see  this  sun  painting  nature  with  beauty  of  color, 
of  light  and  shade,  contrast  and  harmony,  and  so 
becoming  God's  great  artist.  As  the  earth  spins  on 
its  soft  axle  from  night  into  day,  the  dawn  calls  on 
all  creatures  to  awaken,  and  the  sun  is  their  lamp,  by 
which  they  can  come  out  and  work,  each  according 
to  his  own  task.  The  mighty  sun  also  pumps  up 
water  out  of  the  ocean  by  millions  of  rays,  every  ray 
a  little  pump  to  bring  up  the  transparent  vapor ;  and 


JESUS   A  MEDIATOR.  305 

then  the  sun,  heating  one  zone  of  earth  more  than 
another,  creates  great  currents  of  air,  by  which  the 
vapor  is  carried  over  continents  till  it  meets  the  cold 
mountain-tops,  and  falls  in  snow  and  rain,  and  rushes 
down  to  the  sea  again  in  a  thousand  rivers.  Thus 
the  sun  is  a  great  mediator  between  God  and  his 
creatures ;  he  warms  them,  he  lightens  them,  he  feeds 
them,  he  supplies  them  with  air  and  water.  No 
wonder  that  men,  seeing  all  this  glory,  wonder, 
and  power,  worshipped  the  creature  instead  of  the 
Creator.  No  wonder  that  the  Persians  saw  in  him 
the  chief  type  of  God,  and  that  they  called  him 
Mithras,  or  "  The  Mediator." 

But  of  all  mediators  between  God  and  man,  man 
himseK  is  the  best.  The  mother  bending  over  her 
infant,  watching,  guarding,  guiding  it,  is  the  first  type 
to  the  child  of  Divine  Providence.  The  love  raining 
on  it  in  showers  of  sweetness  from  her  lips  and  eyes 
is  the  first  influence  of  Divine  love  to  its  young 
heart.  So  is  God's  wisdom  mediated  to  us  through 
the  sages,  the  elders,  the  wise  men  and  women  who 
have  seen  life,  and  whose  words  come  freighted  with 
solid  experience.  So  is  God's  generosity  mediated 
to  us  through  human  generosity ;  through  those  who 
have  done  good  to  us,  hoping  for  nothing  again ;  who 
have  given   time,  thought,  sympathy,  to  our  needs. 


306  COMMON-SENSE  IN  KELIGION. 

because  it  was  their  noble  nature  to  do  so ;  whom  we 
cannot  praise  and  dare  not  thank,  because  it  would 
seem  like  trying  to  repay  what  can  never  be  repaid. 
These  are  our  angels,  our  saints,  to  whom  we  owe  the 
knowledge  of  genuine,  solid  goodness.  But  the  best 
thing  they  do  for  us  is  to  enable  us,  by  believing  in 
the  reality  of  truth  and  love,  to  believe  in  God,  — 
sole  true,  sole  good. 

Every  nation  has  its  prophets,  its  lawgivers,  its 
Divine  messengers.  Life  would  be  poor  enough  if 
these  wei«  taken  away.  When  we  lose  our  faith  in 
prophets,  martyrs,  and  saints,  we  had  better  die. 
There  is  only  one  soul-destroying  infidelity;  it  is 
to  doubt  the  reality  of  goodness.  The  low  cunning, 
calling  itself  wisdom,  which  thinks  itself  knowing 
because  it  believes  all  men  knaves,  each  man  with 
his  price ;  which  considers  self-love  the  only  wire  by 
which  these  human  puppets  are  pulled,  —  this  is  the 
only  atheism  there  is.  Deny  conscience,  deny  gen- 
erosity, deny  purity  of  heart,  and  you  quench  the 
eye  in  man's  soul  by  which  he  sees  God.  But  when 
we  believe  in  good  men  and  women,  in  holy  men 
and  women,  in  true  men  and  women,  then  we  are 
beginning  to  believe  in  God.  For  these  are  the 
mediators  of  the  most  divine  element  in  Deity; 
that  is,  of  his  goodness.     Nature   mediates  power. 


JESUS  A  MEDIATOR.  307 

providence,  wisdom,  universal  beauty ;  but  good  men 
alone  can  mediate  that  infinite  fatherly  and  motherly 
love,  that  righteousness  like  the  great  fountain  with- 
out stain,  that  absolute  beauty  of  holiness  which  is 
the  very  God  in  God. 

If,  then,  nature,  providence,  good  men  and  women, 
all  prophets  of  truth,  all  saints  of  love,  are  mediators 
between  God  and  man,  why  does  Paul  say,  "  There 
is  one  God,  and  one  mediator  between  God  and  man, 
the  man  Christ  Jesus  "  ?  In  answer  to  this  we  may 
say  that  Paul  emphasizes  the  humanity  of  Christ 
here.  It  is  the  man  Christ  Jesus ;  it  is  his  perfect 
humanity  which  enables  him  to  be  a  perfect  medi- 
ator. It  is  because  he  sums  up  in  himself  aU  our 
human  affections,  fulfils  all  our  human  goodness, 
enters  into  our  human  wants  and  sins  with  perfect 
sympathy,  that  he  stands  between  us  and  God  to 
bring  God  near.  It  is  "  the  man  Christ  Jesus,"  not 
the  God  Jesus,  who  is  the  mediator  between  God 
and  man. 

The  mission  of  Jesus  was  to  be  the  mediator  of 
the  religion  of  humanity.  He  was  to  show  that 
religion  was  made  for  man,  not  man  for  religion ; 
that  the  Sabbath  was  made  for  man,  not  man  for 
the  Sabbath ;  that  the  Bible  was  made  for  man,  not 
man  for  the  Bible ;  that  the  Church  was  made  for 


308  COMMON-SENSE  IN  RELIGION.      ' 

man,  not  man  for  the  Church.  He  manifests  the 
synthesis  of  piety  and  humanity;  shows  that  who- 
ever truly  loves  God  must  love  man,  and  whoever 
truly  loves  man  must  love  God.  He  taught  that 
man  is  greater  than  the  Temple,  greater  than  all 
forms  and  ceremonies,  and  that  the  development 
and  education  of  the  human  soul  is  the  object  of 
true  religion.  He  came  to  be  the  mediator  of  this 
idea,  of  the  humanity  of  religion. 

In  doing  this,  Jesus  fulfilled  the  ideas  of  all  other 
great  prophets  and  all  other  great  religions.  All,  as 
the  Apostle  declares,  are  summed  up  in  love  to 
God  and  man.  This  divine-human  love  is  not  only 
the  fulfilling  of  the  Jewish  law  but  of  all  other 
laws.  Thus  Brahmanism  teaches  a  Divine  love,  but 
not  a  human  love.  Buddhism  teaches  a  human 
love,  but  not  a  Divine  one.  Some  teach  the  divin- 
ity of  spirit,  but  not  that  of  nature;  others,  like 
Egypt,  teach  the  divinity  of  nature,  but  not  of  spirit. 
Jesus,  by  his  gospel,  not  only  makes  God  and  man 
one,  but  also  unites  in  one  central  truth  all  other 
partial  truths.  The  other  religions  disappear  only 
because  they  are  fulfilled.  When  that  which  is 
perfect  is  come,  then  that  which  is  in  part  is  al- 
ways done  away.  Christianity  has  fulfilled  the 
religions  of  Greece,  Scandinavia,  Egypt,  Eome,  Per- 


JESUS   A   MEDIATOR.  309 

sia,  and  they  have  disappeared,  their  work  being 
done.  The  vast  religions  of  Central  and  Eastern 
Asia  have  not  yet  been  reached,  but  in  the  fulness 
of  time  they  also  will  be  fulfilled  in  the  gospel. 
The  great  Semitic  reaction  which  we  call  Moham- 
medanism resulted  from  erroneous  doctrines  in  the 
Christian  Church  concerning  the  Trinity,  which 
seemed  to  cloud  the  central  truth  that  the  Lord 
our  God  is  one  Lord.  Islam  is  a  protest  in  behalf 
of  monotheism,  and  was  made  inevitable  by  the 
false  direction  taken  by  the  Church  in  its  dis- 
cussions of  the  Trinity  and  Incarnation.  When 
Unitarian  theology  shall  have  leavened  Christianity 
sufficiently,  and  Christ  is  accepted  as  a  Divine  man, 
and  not  as  a  human  God,  Islam,  with  all  its  vast 
body  of  converted  monotheists,  will  be  reunited  to 
Christendom. 


XIV. 

THE   EXPECTATIONS    AND    DISAPPOINT- 
MENTS  OF   JESUS. 


XIV. 

THE    EXPECTATIONS    AND    DISAPPOINT- 
MENTS  OF  JESUS. 

There  is  nothing  more  interesting  than  to  look 
into  the  mind  of  a  great  man,  a  man  of  genius, 
and  see  what  he  thought  of  himself  and  of  his 
works.  That  is  why  we  love  biography,  especially 
autobiography.  We  wish  to  become  intimate  with 
the  person  whose  genius  has  enchanted  us,  or  whose 
soul  has  gone  over  the  world ;  to  know  what  he 
thought  and  did  in  private,  and  whether  he  felt  like 
ourselves  in  his  home  and  by  his  fireside.  We 
wish  to  trace  the  springs  of  his  greatness ;  to  see 
the  motive  which  roused  him,  the  end  he  pursued. 
We  never  tire  of  such  biographies  as  those  of 
Johnson,  Walter  Scott,  John  Wesley,  Benjamin 
Franklin,  Schiller,  Columbus,  Washington,  Charles 
Lamb,  Charlotte  Bronte,  Frederick  Eobertson  or  such 
autobiographies  as  the  Confessions  of  St.  Augustine, 
the  memoirs  of  Benvenuto  Cellini,  Horace  Walpole, 
Alfieri,  Silvio  Pellico,  Goethe,  Cowper. 

Perhaps  one  reason  why  we  love  poetry  is  that 

14 


314  COMMON-SENSE  IN   RELIGION. 

poetry  is  almost  always  autobiography.  The  poet 
stands  always  in  the  confessional,  and  unlocks  his 
heart  with  that  golden  key.  He  confides  the  in- 
most secret  of  his  soul,  the  deepest  aim  of  his  life, 
his  most  sacred  experience,  in  that  dim  religious 
light,  under  the  rose  of  song.  Cowper's  biography 
does  not  tell  us  so  much  of  him  as  do  his  hymns ; 
and  if  Sha'kespeare  had  written  his  own  life,  I  doubt 
if  we  should  have  learned  more  of  his  inmost  being 
than  we  can  now  learn  from  his  sonnets.  When  we 
read  Mrs.  Browning's  poetry,  or  that  of  Whittier,  we 
come  nearer  to  their  heart  than  if  we  w^ere  living 
in  their  house ;  for  we  might  live  in  their  house  and 
not  live  in  their  soul. 

But  who  shall  read  to  us  the  interior  life  of  the 
greatest  of  all  human  souls  ?  Who  shall  show  us 
what  were  his  hidden  experiences,  his  struggles  with 
himself,  the  gradual  steps  by  which  he  came  to  the 
conviction  that  he  was  meant,  in  God's  providence, 
to  be  the  king  of  the  world  and  the  man  of  men  ; 
that  he  was  sent  to  lift  men  out  of  servitude  into 
freedom  by  making  them  children  of  God,  to  raise 
humanity  out  of  sin  into  holiness,  to  cure  the  woes 
and  diseases  of  the  human  heart,  to  bring  peace 
instead  of  war  into  the  world  ? 

I  say  by  gradual  steps.      It  must  have  come  to 


EXPECTATIONS   OF  JESUS.  315 

him  gradually,  for  that  is  the  human  way.  He 
"  increased  in  knowledge  and  w^isdom,"  says  the 
faithful  text,  "  and  in  favor  with  God  and  man." 
As  long  as  he  w^as  considered  a  God,  no  growth  was 
deemed  possible,  and  no  one  asked  this  question. 
N'ow  we  must  ask  it,  —  but  can  it  be  answered  ? 

Not  a  word,  not  a  Hue,  have  we  (except  those 
few  words  which  tell  us  that  he  grew  in  wdsdom 
and  knowledge)  from  all  the  thirty  years  of  his 
youth.  Then  God  was  educating  him ;  but  of 
that  education  nothing  has  been  told  us.  0,  if 
only  in  some  monastery  on  Mount  Athos,  or 
some  cave  in  India,  a  real  gospel  of  the  youth  of 
Jesus  might  be  found!  But  no;  he  comes  forward 
in  all  the  maturity  of  his  powers  and  aims.  He  is 
a  priest  after  the  order  of  Melchizedek ;  there  is 
no  genealogy  of  his  soul  given  to  us ;  that  is  with- 
out father  or  mother,  without  beginning  of  days  or 
end  of  years. 

Why  this  is  so  it  is  easy  to  see.  Who  was  there 
then  who  could  have  understood  the  inward  expe- 
rience of  the  soul  of  Jesus  ?  No  one  near  him 
was  adequate  to  that.  -  Possibly  Paul  might  have 
done  so,  who  understood  him  so  well  afterward ;  but 
none  of  those  simple,  honest  fishermen  of  the  lake 
could  have  comprehended  anything  of  the  struggles 


316  COMMON-SENSE   IN    RELIGION. 

and  aspirations  of  Jesus.  He  was,  and  must  be, 
intellectually  and  spiritually  alone. 

Only  one  symbolic  story  we  have,  by  which,  in  a 
sort  of  parable,  Jesus  told  his  disciples  something 
of  his  inward  trials.  In  this  history  of  the  temp- 
tation he  lets  them  have  the  condensed  history  of 
his  greatest  struggle  with  himself.  He  was  con- 
scious of  his  immense,  immeasurable  spiritual  power. 
He  knew  that  he  could  easily  do  what  Mohammed 
afterward  did, — that  he  could  wield,  mould,  and  band 
together  the  hearts  of  thousands  till  they  should 
beat  as  one,  and  so  create  an  irresistible  moral  force. 
He  knew  that  neither  the  authority  of  the  Jewish 
schools,  the  power  of  Pagan  superstition,  nor  the 
eagles  of  Eome,  could  oppose  him  successfully,  if 
he  chose  thus  to  unite,  in  one  flame  of  fiery  zeal, 
the  hearts  of  his  nation.  He  knew  there  was  in 
himself  this  "mystery  of  commanding"  mankind, 
and  one  of  his  temptations  was  to  use  it  in  order 
to  establish  the  kingdom  of  heaven. 

If  the  Arab  tribes,  who  for  two  thousand  years 
had  played  no  part  in  human  history,  were  so  uni- 
ted by  the  faith  of  Mohammed  as  to  conquer  the 
world,  how  easy  had  it  been  for  Jesus  to  thus 
unite  the  whole  Semitic  race  on  a  far  higher  plane 
of  conviction,  and  in  a  far  deeper  life.     He  might 


EXPECTATIONS   OF  JESUS.  317 

have  made  of  them  an  irresistible,  unconquerable 
power.  His  miraculous  or  singular  physical  gifts, 
joined  with  his  intellectual  insight  and  spiritual 
force,  would  easily  have  awakened  such  a  flame 
of  enthusiasm  as  would  have  made  the  Jewish  peo- 
ple a  power  nothing  could  oppose.  They  expected 
it,  they  longed  for  it,  they  were  all  ready  for  it; 
they  wanted  to  take  him  by  force  and  make  him 
their  king.  The  latent  strength  of  that  Semitic  race 
afterward  showed  itself  in  their  wars  with  the  Eo- 
mans.  When  united  by  a  religious  conviction,  they 
have  always  been  terrible.  Even  without  that  con- 
viction the  Carthaginians,  under  Hannibal,  nearly 
destroyed  the  Eoman  power.  With  it,  under  Mo- 
hammed, the  Arabs  overran  the  world.  There  was 
another  temptation.  If  he  did  not  do  this,  he  might 
do  something  else.  He  might  abstain  wholly  from 
active  Hfe,  renounce  all  ambition  of  power,  and  be- 
come the  great  thinker  and  seer  of  mankind.  He 
would  then  become,  not  the  king  of  the  human  race, 
but  its  prophet.  Instead  of  a  few  conversations, 
exhortations,  parables,  addressed  to  the  ignorant  com- 
mon people,  he  might  be  the  one  great  teacher  of 
truth  and  beauty  for  all  mankind.  Eetiring  into 
some  monastic  seclusion,  and  devoting  his  life  to 
thought  and  writing,  he   might  speak   to  mankind 


318  COMMON-SENSE  IN   RELIGION. 

as  neither  Plato,  Aristotle,  nor  Homer  among  the 
Greeks,  nor  David  and  Isaiah  among  his  own  peo- 
ple, had  done.  What  a  divine  work  would  have 
come  from  the  intellect  of  Jesus,  if  he  had  devoted 
long  years  to  its  creation.  Then,  indeed,  he  would 
have  stood  on  the  pinnacle  of  the  Temple,  borne  up 
by  the  angels  of  truth  and  love. 

But  Jesus  saw  that  it  was  not  the  voice  of  God, 
but  the  voice  of  Satan,  which  offered  him  thus  aU 
the  kingdoms  of  the  world;  offered  him  the  bread 
of  love  and  reverence  instead  of  the  stones  of  slan- 
derous, cruel,  hard-hearted  opposition;  offered  him 
a  shining  place  in  the  temple  of  God  instead  of  his 
obscure  Galilean  work.  So  he  said  "  Get  thee  behind 
me,  Satan  ! "  and  went  forward  to  the  task  God  had 
given  him  to  do. 

This  is  all  we  know  from  Jesus  himself  of  the 
struggles  and  temptations  which  preceded  his  open 
ministry.  We  know  nothing  of  the  growth  of  his 
soul.  He  came  forth  at  thirty  years,  composed,  self- 
possessed,  without  any  hesitation  in  his  thought.  He 
was  not  an  inquirer  or  thinker,  like  Socrates.  He 
spoke  with  authority,  sure  of  himself  He  was  hum- 
ble and  lowly  of  heart,  for  he  sought  no  praise,  nor 
any  place  but  that  of  service.  Yet  he  had  that 
entire  conviction  of  his  own  power  that  caused  him 


EXPECTATIONS   OF  JESUS.  319 

to  say,  "  I  am  the  way,  the  truth,  and  the  life "  ; 
" See  me,  and  you  see  God  as  a  father " ;  "I  am  one 
with  God  "  ;  "  Come  to  me  and  have  rest "  ;  "  All 
power  is  given  to  me  in  heaven  and  earth."  What 
majestic  claims  combined  with  what  lowly  service ! 

Jesus  came  forth  from  his  obscurity  unheralded,  as 
in  1492  the  star  seen  by  Tycho  appeared  suddenly 
in  the  sky.  As  that  star  appeared  in  its  place  in 
the  heavens  bright  as  the  star  Sirius,  and  in  a 
few  weeks  became  brighter  than  the  planet  Venus, 
so  Jesus  came  forth  in  the  full  glory  of  his  heavenly 
insight,  taught  for  a  year  or  two,  and  then  came  to 
an  end.  But,  unlike  that  star,  his  glory  has  in- 
creased and  has  filled  the  world,  and  wiU  continue 
to  grow  until  every  knee  shall  bow,  and  every  tongue 
confess  that  Jesus  is  Lord,  to  the  glory  of  God  the 
Father. 

The  purpose  which  he  had  in  coming  forward  was 
to  become  the  Jewish  Messiah  in  the  highest  spir- 
itual sense.  It  was  to  make  the  whole  nation  kings 
and  priests  to  God ;  missionaries  of  the  human  race 
to  bring  mankind  to  the  worship  of  one  God,  even 
the  Father.  In  this  high  sense  he  was  to  be  their 
king,  prophet,  and  priest.  He  called  on  them  to  fol- 
low him,  that  they  might  become  the  true  leaders 
of  the  world.     But  to  do  this  they  must  begin  by 


320  COMMON-SENSE  IN   RELIGION. 

renouncing  all  secular  ambition,  all  worldly  power. 
So  he  commenced  his  Sermon  on  the  Mount  by 
telling  them  that  if  they  would  have  the  kingdom 
of  heaven  they  must  be  poor  in  spirit,  meek,  and 
willing  to  be  persecuted  for  righteousness'  sake.  It 
was  the  expectation  of  Jesus  to  lead  his  nation  into 
this  heavenly  kingdom;  to  become  its  prophet  and 
inspiration ;  to  unite  them,  not  for  conquest,  but  for 
the  service  of  mankind.  He  hoped  to  be  able  to 
overcome  the  bigotry  of  the  priests  and  sluggish- 
ness of  the  people  by  the  power  of  his  own  convic- 
tions. He  thought  the  kingdom  of  heaven  was  at 
hand,  and  sent  forth  his  disciples  to  say  so.  When, 
at  the  very  beginning  of  his  mission,  he  healed  tlie 
Eoman  centurion's  servant,  and  saw  his  faith,  he 
perceived  in  it  a  sign  of  the  speedy  conversion  of 
the  Gentiles  to  the  worship  of  one  God.  "Many," 
said  he,  "shall  come  from  the  east  and  the  west 
and  sit  down  with  Abraham  in  the  kingdom  of 
God." 

But  this  great  hope  was  no  blind  enthusiasm.  He 
knew  well  all  the  obstacles  in  his  path.  The  Jew- 
ish nation  was  not  what  it  ought  to  be.  The  salt 
had  lost  its  savor.  If  the  people  of  Tyre  and  Sidon, 
of  Sodom  and  Gomorrah,  had  heard  what  the  people 
of  Cana  and   Capernaum   heard,  they  would  have 


EXPECTATIONS   OF  JESUS.  321 

repented.  His  own  nation  had  so  little  interest  in 
his  teaching,  so  little  sense  of  his  meaning,  that  he 
was  obliged  to  change  his  method  of  communication 
and  tell  them  stories,  hiding  his  moral  in  the  fable. 
It  deeply  wounded  him  to  hear  that  the  Pharisees 
had  explained  his  miracles  by  the  power  of  Satan. 
He  referred  to  it  afterward  in  a  way  that  showed 
how  much  he  felt  it.  He  said,  "  If  they  have  called 
the  master  of  the  house  Beelzebub,  how  much  more 
they  of  his  household."  He  soon  saw  that  the 
cross  lay  at  the  end  of  his  course.  He  told  his 
disciples  that  they  must  be  prepared  to  take  up 
their  cross,  too,  and  to  follow  him.  He  was  not 
afraid  of  this  cruel  death;  what  he  feared,  and  aU 
that  he  feared,  was  rejection  and  the  defeat  of  his 
cause.  He  knew  that  he  could  be  a  better  Messiah 
by  dying  than  by  living.  "  I,  if  I  be  lifted  up,  will 
draw  aU  men  unto  me."  *  Possibly  he  founded  the 
body  of  the  twelve  Apostles  that  he  might  edu- 
cate them  to  take  his  place,  and  be  the  head  of  the 
nation  when  he  should  die,  leading  the  twelve  tribes, 
one  for  each  tribe.  They  were  ignorant,  to  be  sure ; 
but  then  he  had  faith  in  the  Divine  Spirit  to  believe 
that  it  would  lead  them  into  aU  truth,  and  teach 
them,  at  last,  their  whole  lesson. 

♦  "Except  a  grain  of  wheat  die,  it  abideth  alone." 
14*  U 


322  COMMON-SENSE   IN   RELIGION. 

The  expectation  of  Jesus,  therefore,  was  of  his  own 
speedy  coming  as  king.  His  great  disappointment 
was  not  that  he  should  himself  be  put  to  death,  but 
that  his  cause  should  not  triumph,  and  that  his  na- 
tion sliould  not  accept  him  as  their  Messiah.  "  Daugh- 
ters of  Jerusalem,  weep  not  for  me,  but  weep  for 
yourselves  and  your  children."  It  was  a  cruel  dis- 
appointment to  his  patriotic  heart  to  think  that  his 
nation  should  cast  away  its  great  opportunity ;  that 
Jerusalem,  the  sacred  city,  should  not  know  the  hour 
of  its  visitation ;  that  the  Jewish  nation,  a  city  set  on 
a  hill,  a  light  meant  to  be  kept  in  its  candlestick 
to  enlighten  all  in  the  house,  should  vacate  its  high 
privilege.  He  mourned  for  them;  he  mourned  for 
mankind  too.  He  saw  what  a  break  would  inter- 
vene in  the  progress  of  humanity,  how  his  religion 
would  be  corrupted  by  paganism  because  the  edu- 
cated mind  of  Judsea  renounced  the  charge  of  it.  If 
the  Jewish  people  had  accepted  the  religion  of  Jesus 
as  the  true  fulfilment  of  their  law,  and  made  of  it  a 
universal  religion,  their  monotheistic  spirit  would 
have  saved  it  from  such  doctrines  as  the  Trinity  and 
Deity  of  Christ,  and  such  practices  as  the  worship  of 
saints  and  of  the  Virgin,  monasticism  and  celibacy. 
The  religion  of  Moses,  which  had  been  spiritualized 
into  that  of  the  Prophets,  would  have  been  universal- 


EXPECTATIONS   OF  JESUS.  323 

ized  into  that  of  Jesus.  The  Jewish  nation  seemed 
to  have  been  expressly  created,  in  their  ethnic  peculi- 
arities, for  this  work ;  and  what  a  vast  disappointment 
it  was  to  Jesus  that  they  refused  to  do  it !  He  could 
hardly  give  up  this  hope,  even  at  the  last  hour ;  and 
his  agony  in  the  Garden  was,  if  one  dare  penetrate 
that  sacred  sorrow,  in  view  of  this  bitterest  cup. 

The  expectation  of  Jesus  that  his  truth  should 
finally  prevail  was  not  disappointed.  He  was  only 
disappointed  as  to  the  time  and  manner.  He  knew 
that  he  was  sent  to  be  the  king  of  the  world,  and 
that  his  coming  as  king  was  sure.  He  knew  he 
should  come  in  the  clouds  of  heaven ;  that  is,  in  the 
mystery  and  majesty  of  spiritual  convictions.  Heaven 
is  the  place  of  souls,  and  when  Christ  comes  in  the 
souls  of  men  he  comes  in  the  heavens.  He  knew 
he  should  send  forth  his  angels,  and  gather  his  elect 
from  all  the  corners  of  the  earth.  And  so  he  has, 
and  is  to  do  it  yet  more  abundantly.  He  perceived 
that  the  temple  worship,  with  its  ritual  and  priest- 
hood, was  to  come  to  an  end,  for  they  were  no 
essential  part  of  the  true  religion  of  Moses.  He 
understood  that  this  would  not  come  without  mighty 
struggle  and  great  suffering,  since  all  the  births  of 
time  are  painful.  He  knew  also  that  his  coming  was 
to   begin   soon,  before  that   generation   had   passed 


324  COMMON-SENSE  IN   RELIGION. 

away.  But  the  day  and  hour  he  did  not  know; 
that  no  finite  being  could  know  certainly.  That 
events  shall  certainly  come  depends  on  the  provi- 
dence of  God ;  when  they  shall  come  depends  also  on 
the  free-will  of  man,  who  can  postpone  indefinitely, 
but  not  forever,  the  purposes  of  God  and  their  ac- 
complishment. 

The  deep  sorrow  in  the  heart  of  Jesus  came  from 
the  sight  of  that  bigotry,  selfishness,  unbelief,  by 
which  his  people  shut  their  eyes,  and  closed  their 
ears,  and  hardened  their  hearts,  so  as  not  to  be  con- 
verted and  healed.  This  was  his  perpetual  disap- 
pointment, his  real  cross.  The  cross  of  Calvary  had 
no  terror  for  him,  except  as  the  sign  of  this  national 
rejection  and  its  consequences.  The  sting  of  his 
death  was  the  sin  of  his  nation  which  caused  it. 

In  reading  the  biographies  of  the  greatest  and 
most  successful  men,  we  almost  always  find  in  their 
lives  this  same  element  of  disappointment.  They 
only  fulfil  half  their  hope.    * 

**  Their  noblest  deed  had  once  another. 
Of  high  Imagination  born,  — 
A  loftier  and  an  elder  brother, 
From  dear  existence  torn." 

How  triumphant  the  apparent  success  of  such  lives 
as  those   of  Washington,   Columbus,  Walter  Scott! 


EXPECTATIONS   OF  JESUS.  825 

But  read  their  biographies,  and  learn  how  the  advent 
of  all  great  things  is  like  the  coming  of  the  Son  of 
man.  They  always  come  in  wars  and  struggles, 
persecution  and  opposition,  false  prophets,  false 
brethren,  darkened  sunlight  and  falling  stars.  Co- 
lumbus was  baffled  and  beset  all  his  life  with  the 
most  cruel  ingratitude,  bitter  hatred,  and  cold  neg- 
lect. Washington's  greatest  merit  and  glory  is, 
that  he  did  not  resign  his  place,  as  most  men 
would  have  done,  when  he  was  perpetually  suspected, 
neglected,  opposed,  and  his  army  left  unprovided 
with  the  absolute  necessities  of  life.  Walter  Scott 
died  dragged  to  the  earth  by  debts  not  his  own,  and 
never  realizing  one  perfectly  peaceful  hour,  free  from 
aU  anxiety.  Charles  Lamb,  so  bright  and  so  cheer- 
ful in  his  books ;  what  a  terrible  tragedy  was  his  inner 
life !  Charlotte  Bront^,  whose  genius  won  ultimately 
such  great  success ;  what  a  sad  martyrdom  were  all 
her  years !  It  seems  as  if  it  might  be  said  of  all 
God's  prophets  :  "  These  all  died  in  faith,  not  having 
received  the  promises,  but  having  seen  them  afar  off, 
and  embraced  them,  confessing  themselves  strangers 
and  pilgrims  on  the  eartli."  They  learn  in  suffering 
what  they  teach  in  song. 

All  great  souls  must  live  a  life  of  disappointment, 
for  their  ideal  must  always  be  higher  than  any  possi- 


326  COMMON-SENSE  IN   RELIGION. 

ble  attainment.  Therefore  Jesus,  as  the  greatest  of 
all  souls,  was  also  one  whose  disappointment  was  the 
greatest.  His  ideal  was  the  conversion  of  his  nation 
to  a  broad  spiritual  religion,  the  essence  of  which 
should  be  love  to  God  and  to  man ;  and  his  hope 
was  that  this  nation,  thus  emancipated  from  its  past, 
thus  deepened  and  broadened,  should  become  indeed 
the  city  on  the  hill,  its  light  shining  through  all  the 
earth,  its  Jehovah  become  the  universal  Father,  wor- 
shipped neither  at  Jerusalem  nor  at  Gerizim,  but 
only  in  spirit  and  in  truth. 

His  hope  was  disappointed.  But  he  who  can  say 
"  Not  my  will,  but  thine,  be  done,"  is  never  wholly 
disappointed.  No  matter  how  he  may,  at  first,  seem 
to  himself  to  fail,  at  last  he  will  be  able  to  say  to 
his  Father,  "1  have  finished  the  work  thou  gavest 
me  to  do."  And  all  great  souls,  like  Jesus,  have 
beneath  their  outward  sense  of  anxiety  and  failure 
the  inward  abiding  conviction  of  ultimate  and  per- 
manent success. 

In  Gerome's  picture  of  the  Crucifixion,  lately  ex- 
hibited in  New  York,  the  crosses  do  not  appear. 
Only  their  black  shadows  come  in,  from  behind,  upon 
the  foreground.  We  see  before  us  tlie  city  of  Jeru- 
salem in  all  its  majesty.  It  seems  a  mile  or  two 
away.     It  is  filled  with  those  who  know  nothing  of 


EXPECTATIONS   OF  JESUS.  327 

this  day  of  their  visitation,  —  those  who  are  engaged 
in  all  the  rush  of  a  great  city's  life,  entirely  ignorant 
that  the  most  important  event  in  the  history  of  man 
is  taking  place  close  by.  They  know  nothing  of  this 
event,  one  of  whose  consequences  will  be  the  de- 
struction and  desolation,  with  unspeakable  horrors,  of 
their  own  great  metropolis.  So  man  walks  blindly 
on,  his  eyes  holden,  not  seeing  the  day  of  his  visita- 
tion, letting  his  opportunities  go ;  and  finding,  when 
it  is  too  late,  that  the  Christ  of  God  has  been  near 
him,  calling  to  him  day  after  day  to  come  to  him 
and  have  rest. 

Such  were  the  expectations  and  disappointments 
of  Jesus.  We  all  have  ours.  Our  hopes  are  de- 
ceived, our  loved  ones  are  taken  too  soon  away,  our 
morning  sun,  "  flattering  the  mountain-top  with  sov- 
ereign eye,"  is  covered  with  dark  mists,  and  hidden 
from  the  forlorn  world.  Let  us  remember,  then,  that 
such  disappointments  are  part  of  the  education  of  the 
soul ;  that  the  highest  natures  have  the  sharpest  dis- 
appointments, and  that  those  of  Jesus  were  the  most 
cruel  of  all.  To  wish  to  be  spared  these  is  to  wish 
to  live  without  any  ideal,  to  be  without  any  great 
hope,  to  lose  the  discipline  and  education  of  life ;  for 
whom  the  Lord  loveth  he  chasteneth. 

The  best  successes  of  this  life  are  not  its  outward 


328  COMMON-SENSE  IN  KELIGION. 

triumphs.  Outward  triumph  may  be,  and  often  is, 
inward  ruin.  Happy  those  who,  when  their  efforts 
are  baffled,  their  love  deceived,  their  most  precious 
hopes  blasted,  are  able  to  trust  God,  submit  to  his 
will,  and  believe  that  all  is  right  which  seems  most 
wrong. 


XV. 

COMMON-SENSE    VIEW  OF    SALVATION   BY 
FAITH. 


XV. 

COMMON -SElSrSE    VIEW    OF    SALVATION 
BY   FAITH. 

I  WISH  to  explain,  if  possible,  the  common-sense 
view  of  salvation  by  faith. 

Many  persons  will  say,  I  suppose,  that  the  whole 
doctrine  of  salvation  by  faith  is  opposed  to  common- 
sense.  But  this  is  because  they  understand  by  faith 
some  theological  opinion,  and  because  they  under- 
stand by  salvation  a  rescue  out  of  a  future  hell  into 
some  future  external  heaven. 

But  faith  is,  in  reahty,  just  as  dear,  precious,  and 
indispensable  to  common-sense  as  it  is  to  religion. 
In  all  the  matters  of  every-day  life  faith  is  just  as 
necessary  as  sight.  You  cannot  build  a  house,  or  go 
on  a  journey,  or  make  a  bargain,  or  cook  a  dinner, 
without  faith.  Without  faith  the  whole  business 
of  life  would  come  to  an  end.  We  walk  by  faith 
nearly  all  the  time.     Let  me  illustrate  this. 

Beginning  on  the  lowest  plane,  we  all  believe  in 
the  stability  of  the  outward  world,  and  walk  by 
that   faith.     We  all  go   to   bed   at  night,   and  fall 


.332  COMMON-SENSE  IN  RELIGION. 

asleep,  —  whicli  is  just  like  dying,  —  believing  that 
we  shall  wake  in  the  morning,  and  that  there  will 
be  a  morning  to  wake  in.  We  expect  to  find  our 
house  and  furniture  and  family  to-morrow  just  as 
they  were  to-day.  We  shall  sit  down  to  breakfast 
to-morrow  believing  that  it  will  feed  us  and  not 
poison  us.  We  shall  go  to  our  business  expecting 
to  find  people  to  deaf  with,  and  work  to  do,  as  we 
found  them  yesterday.  We  all  repose,  in  perfect 
security,  on  this  firm  faith  in  the  stability  of  the 
universe.  We  walk  by  it,  live  by  it,  are  saved  by 
it.  When  a  man  begins  to  doubt  it,  he  begins  to 
be  insane.  If  a  man  distrusts  his  friends  and  thinks 
they  want  to  hurt  him,  distrusts  his  food  and  thinks 
it  will  poison  him,  and  so  leaves  the  domain  of  uni- 
versal faith,  his  friends  say  he  is  going  crazy..  Scep- 
ticism here  is  the  same  as  insanity.  It  is  mental 
death.  Sensible  and  sane  people  live  by  faith  in 
the  permanence  of  the  laws  of  nature.  It  is  the 
evidence  of  things  not  seen.  You  trust  that  the 
things  you  have  not  seen  wiU  be  like  the  things 
you  have  seen ;  that  to-morrow  will  be  like  to-day, 
as  to-day  is  like  yesterday. 

The  first  fact,  therefore,  which  we  notice  is,  that 
all  our  life  reposes  on  faith  in  the  constancy  of 
law,   and   upon   faith   in   each    other.     We   cannot 


SALVATION   BY   FAITH.  333 

take  a  step  or  do  the  commonest  thing  without  this 
faith. 

The  next  fact  which  we  observe  is  that  faith  is  the 
great  means  of  education ;  it  leads  to  knowledge. 
Little  children  come  into  life  ready  to  believe  all 
that  is  told  them,  and  so  they  learn  fast.  They 
may  be  told  some  falsehoods,  but  ninety-nine  one- 
hundredths  of  what  they  are  told  is  true.  They  are 
saved  by  faith  from  their  ignorance.  They  are  led 
by  faith  to  sight.  Faith  in  parents,  teachers,  supe- 
riors, is  the  great  conduit  by  which  knowledge  is 
poured  into  their  souls. 

But  if,  now,  we  analyze  faith  to  see  what  it  is, 
we  shall  find  that  it  is,  first,  faith  in  persons.  This 
is  the  faith  of  the  child.  I^ext,  it  is  faith  in  ideas, 
in  laws,  in  principles.  And,  lastly,  it  is  the  union 
of  both,  faith  in  God,  in  whom  law  and  love  are 
one,  —  the  Divine  Being  whose  nature  is  truth,  who 
is  the  sum  of  all  the  laws  of  the  universe. 

By  this  faith  we  live,  by  this  faith  we  grow,  by 
this  faith  we  accomplish  everything,  by  this  faith 
we  are  saved.  We  cease  to  be  animals  as  we  arise 
out  of  sensation  and  sight  into  belief  and  trust  in 
ideas. 

All  great  men,  all  the  souls  who  govern  the  world 
and  lead  on  society,  are  great  in  proportion  to  their 


334  COMMON-SENSE  IN   RELIGION. 

strength  of  conviction.  They  act,  not  by  what  they 
see,  but  by  their  strong  confidence  in  what  they  do 
not  see.     They  obtain  a  good  report  by  faith. 

All  great  inventions  and  discoveries  have  come 
from  faith. 

In  the  year  1492  a  little  vessel  was  struggling 
with  storms  on  the  bosom  of  the  Atlantic,  gradu- 
ally making  its  way  westward.  This  great  ocean, 
now  spotted  everywhere  with  sails  and  traversed 
by  steamers,  which  has  its  streets  and  roads  al- 
most as  distinct  as  those  of  a  city,  rolled  then, 
as  it  had  rolled  since  creation,  without  a  trace  of 
human  existence  on  its  vast  surface.  One  man's 
faith  has  changed  it  all.  One  man,  who  believed 
enough  in  things  not  seen  to  go  forth  and  make 
his  way  into  the  great  mystery  of  the  unknown 
West,  created  a  new  world.  He  believed  in  the  in- 
visible things  of  God  and  nature.  He  went  out  to 
a  place  which  he  should  afterward  receive  as  an  in- 
heritance. He  sojourned  in  the  land  of  promise  as  a 
stranger,  looking  for  a  building  which  had  founda- 
tions, whose  builder  and  maker  is  God.  Columbus 
walked  by  faith  in  God  just  as  much  as  Abraham 
did,  and  so  faith  added  half  a  world  to  the  domain 
of  sight. 

All  the  great  discoveries  of  modern  times  were 


SALVATION  BY  FAITH.  335 

once  ideas  in  the  minds  of  their  inventors.  The 
printing-press,  which  pours  out  its  millions  of  sheets 
every  day,  which  lays  on  our  doorsteps  every  evening 
the  news  of  the  whole  world,  was  once  a  matter  of 
faith  in  the  mind  of  a  Faust.  The  steamboat,  whose 
tremendous  machinery  moves  with  such  power  and 
such  ease,  which  unites  the  continents,  abolishes  the 
oceans,  and  ransacks  every  river  and  bay  and  lake  of 
Europe  and  America  with  its  restless  activity,  was 
once  a  matter  of  faith  in  the  mind  of  Fulton.  The 
power-looms  which  roar  from  early  morn  to  dewy 
eve  by  the  streams  of  New  England  and  in  the  val- 
leys of  Old  England,  which  clothe  the  inhabitants  of 
the  world,  were,  a  few  years  since,  a  matter  of  faith 
in  the  mind  of  Watt.  The  locomotives  which  trav- 
erse the  plain,  ascend  the  mountain,  and  rush  across 
continents,  drawing  their  immense  burdens  as  easily 
as  if  they  were  a  child's  basket-wagon,  were  once  a 
matter  of  faith  in  the  mind  of  Stephenson.  The 
photograph,  which  brings  to  us  the  exact  forms  of 
the  Pyramids  of  Egypt  and  the  ruins  of  Athens; 
which  preserves  the  dear  features  of  child  and  wife ; 
which  rescues  from  oblivion  the  tender  gaze  of  love, 
the  glow  of  thought,  the  expression  of  a  generous 
purpose, —  that  also  was,  at  first,  a  belief  in  the  mind 
of  Daguerre.     All  the  inventions,  luxuries,  arts,  all 


COMMON-SENSE  IN   RELIGION. 


the  knowledge,  power,  wealth,  of  the  world,  is  the 
creation  of  faith.  Columbus,  Watt,  Fulton,  Daguerre, 
Stephenson,  all  died  in  faith,  not  having  received  the 
promises,  but  having  seen  them  afar  off,  and  were 
persuaded  of  them,  and  embraced  them.  They 
triumphed  over  obstacles,  they  bore  ridicule  and 
contempt  willingly,  because  they  counted  God  and 
nature  faithful,  who  had  promised  them,  in  their 
strong  conviction,  that  they  should  succeed  in  ac- 
complishing what  they  designed.  And  s6  they  saw 
at  last  a  part  of  what  they  foresaw,  and  their  faith 
led  to  sight. 

All  great  moral  reforms  have  begun  in  faith. 
Have  we  not  seen  in  our  own  day  the  tremen- 
dous power  of  slavery,  which  had  taken  possession 
of  the  Union,  overthrown  by  the  faith  of  a  few  men 
in  the  principles  of  eternal  justice  ?  They  believed, 
therefore  they  spoke ;  and  by  their  speech  they 
overthrew  this  terrible  power.  On  one  side  was  or- 
ganization, law,  prestige,  a  great  political  party, 
Presidents,  Congress,  the  army  and  navy  of  the 
Union ;  on  the  other  nothing  but  faith,  —  faith  in 
justice,  truth,  God.  And  this  invisible  power  con- 
quered all  the  outward  forces  of  the  things  seen  and 
temporal. 

Eecently,  in   New  York,  theft   and    villany  had 


SALVATION   BY  FAITH.  337 

intrenched  themselves  so  strongly  that  it  seemed 
impossible  to  overthrow  them.  They  had  possession 
of  the  ballot-box,  the  courts,  millions  of  money,  and 
aU  the  forms  of  law.  But  a  single  newspaper,  having 
faith  in  the  power  of  truth,  assailed  them  ;  and  now 
we  see  this  great  and  impudent  power  prostrate 
before  the  mighty  unseen  force  of  conviction  and 
truth.  These  men  who  ruled  the  metropolis  are 
defeated,  and  their  power  broken.  The  people  of 
New  York  may  say,  "We  are  saved  by  faith." 

Of  the  great  Semitic  race,  many  families  were  dis- 
tinguished in  antiquity.  Some  of  them  built  Babylon 
and  Nineveh,  and  created  the  civilizations  of  the  val- 
leys of  the  Euphrates  and  Tigris.  The  Phoenicians 
became  famous  in  arts,  commerce,  and  maritime  dis- 
covery. They  sailed  out  of  the  Eed  Sea  and  went  to 
India.  They  sailed  out  of  the  Mediterranean  and  dis- 
covered Great  Britain.  They  circumnavigated  Africa. 
The  Carthaginians  were  the  proud  rivals  of  Kome,  and 
the  merchants  of  the  Old  World.  They  flowered  out 
in  Hannibal,  the  greatest  captain  of  any  age.  But 
one  family  of  the  race  remained  obscure,  unknown, 
hidden  in  the  deserts  of  Arabia,  during  twenty  centu- 
ries. They  had  no  union,  no  civilization,  no  religion. 
But  at  last  a  man  arose  with  faith  in  God,  believing 
in   one  Supreme  Spiritual  Being.     During   thirteen 

15  V 


338  COMMON-SENSE   IN    RELIGION. 

years  he  preached  this  faith  in  spite  of  opposition 
and  scorn.  At  last  he  triumphed;  and  then  this 
Arab  people,  inspired  by  their  new  conviction,  sud- 
denly flamed  up  into  a  power  which  astonished 
mankind.  They  overran  and  conquered  Syria,  Per- 
sia, Egypt,  North  Africa.  They  invaded  Spain  and 
took  possession  of  it.  They  invaded  the  Byzantine 
Empire  and  took  Constantinople.  They  developed  a 
great  civilization.  Their  scholars  translated  Plato 
and  Aristotle.  Their  medical  schools  were  the  most 
renowned  in  the  world.  They  discovered  chemistry, 
taught  astronomy,  invented  algebra.  This  sudden 
development  was  all  born  of  faith,  —  of  faith  in  one 
God.  It  was  like  the  star  which  Tycho  Brahe  saw 
suddenly  appearing.  In  a  few  years  it  was  all  gone, 
because  it  had  substituted  force  for  faith,  the  sword 
for  conviction.  As  long  as  the  Arabs  believed,  they 
went  forward  trusting  to  things  unseen ;  as  soon  as 
they  relied  on  things  seen,  they  began  to  decay. 

Protestantism,  as  a  faith  in  ideas,  had  a  similar 
mighty  influence.  In  a  few  years  it  overran  nearly 
all  Europe.  Not  only  Germany  and  England  and 
Sweden,  but  France,  Spain,  Austria,  Italy,  were  half 
converted  to  its  doctrines.  Then  Luther  and  his 
friends  became  alarmed  at  the  variety  of  opinions 
which  sprang  iip,  and  they  denied  their  own  prin- 


SALVATION  BY  FAITH.  339 

ciple  of  freedom.  They  set  up  an  orthodox  creed 
and  an  infallible  Bible,  and  refused  to  commune  with 
any  who  would  not  accept  their  dogmas.  Then 
Protestantism  was  checked,  and  has  never  recovered 
from  its  reverses  to  this  day.  As  long  as  it  had 
faith  in  ideas,  it  triumphed ;  as  soon  as  it  began  to 
deny  its  early  faith,  it  fell. 

All  the  strength  and  force  of  man  comes  from  his 
faith  in  things  unseen.  He  who  believes  is  strong, 
he  who  doubts  is  weak.  Strong  convictions  precede 
great  actions.  The  man  strongly  possessed  of  an  idea 
is  the  master  of  all  who  are  uncertain  and  waverinjr. 
Clear,  deep,  living  convictions  rule  the  world. 

Now,  the  highest  of  all  ideas  is  that  of  God.  It 
includes  all  other  great  truths  in  itself,  as  the  ocean 
includes  all  its  waves.  He  who  believes  in  God  has 
the  fulness  of  faith  in  all  unseen  realities. 

But  the  idea  of  God  is  greater  in  some  minds  than 
in  others.  Some  of  the  prophets  of  the  w^orld  have 
seen  God  as  power,  some  as  law,  some  as  a  perfect 
providence,  some  as  the  life  of  nature.  Every  such 
faith  has  helped  to  save  the  world  from  its  ignorance, 
its  coldness,  its  death.  It  has  turned  savages  into  men, 
it  has  purified  life  of  its  evils,  it  has  awakened  the 
head,  moved  the  heart,  strengthened  the  hand.  And 
this  is  the  real  salvation  for  man,  this  inward  life. 


340  COMMON-SENSE  IN  KELIGION. 

which  saves  him  from  the  hell  of  ignorance  and 
mental  death,  from  the  hell  of  selfishness  and  moral 
death,  from  the  hell  of  passivity,  inaction,  sloth, 
which  is  the  death  of  his  will.  Heaven  here,  in  its 
essence,  is  hope  and  love;  and  all  of  an  outward, 
visible  heaven  is  only  the  fruit  of  this.  The  state 
of  a  man's  soul  makes  heaven  or  hell ;  and  the  state 
of  his  soul  depends  on  his  having,  or  not  having, 
strong  convictions  of  unseen  realities,  great  love  for 
unseen  beauty  and  truth ;  in  short,  faith  in  God, 
truth,  duty,  eternal  facts  and  laws. 

All  prophets  have  awakened  more  or  less  of  this 
faith,  all  of  them  have  lifted  man  out  of  the  life  of 
sense  into  the  life  of  ideas  and  convictions.  But 
Jesus  has  done  this  in  a  vastly  greater  measure. 
What  they  have  done  partially,  he  has  done  uni- 
versally. They  have  taught  this  or  that  particular 
race  for  a  time;  he  teaches  humanity  for  all  time. 
His  great  faith  in  God  as  the  union  of  perfect 
power,  wisdom,  and  love  can  never  be  exceeded  or 
outgrown.  Ages  come  and  go,  and  each  age  as  it 
advances  comes  nearer  to  him.  The  highest  life  in 
the  human  soul  is  derived  from  that  faith  which 
Jesus  has  inspired  in  the  world.  If  any  one  thinks 
that  he  can  get  a  faith  larger  than  that  of  Jesus, 
let  him  by  all  means  try  to  do  it,  for  why  should 


SALVATION   BY  FAITH.  341 

not  that  experiment  be  made  ?  If  any  one  thinks 
he  can  w^k  more  surely  without  the  guidance  of 
Jesus,  let  him  try ;  the  result  will  probably  be  to 
bring  him  back  to  Christ,  saying,  as  the  Apostles 
said,  "  Lord,  to  whom  shall  we  go  ?  thou  hast  the 
words  of  eternal  life." 

Once,  when  going  with  a  party  through  the  great 
Mammoth  Cave  of  Kentucky,  we  grew  tired  of 
following  our  guide.  The  cave  opened  before  us 
vast  and  grand,  but  it  seemed  a  plain  way ;  and 
so  we  thought  we  would  go  forward  and  find  the 
way  for  ourselves.  The-  guide  stayed  behind,  and 
let  us  go  on.  But  directly  we  came  where  side- 
passages  opened  out  of  the  darkness,  where  vast 
pits  yawned  before  us. .  Then  we  became  confused 
and  uncertain,  and  willingly  consented  to  be  led  by 
experience  and  knowledge.  We  found  we  could 
walk  by  faith  better  than  by  sight.  But  it  was  an 
intelligent  faith,  for  it  was  placed  on  a  tried  leader, 
long  familiar  with  every  intricacy  and  winding  ave- 
nue of  the  mysterious,  awful  region ;  mile  after  mile 
we  followed  him,  till  at  last  we  saw  in  the  distance  a 
beautiful  light,  seeming  to  be  composed  of  all  em- 
eralds, rubies,  and  diamonds,  and  we  found  it  to  be 
sunshine  and  day  seen  through  the  entrance  in  the 
far  distance. 


842  COMMON-SENSE   IN   RELIGION. 

So  the  world  follows  Jesus,  walking  by  faith  in 
him.  It  sometimes  leaves  him  to  try  ta  go  alone, 
but  it  always  returns  again.  For  faith  in  him  is  not 
faith  in  him,  but  faith  in  his  experience,  his  insight, 
his  inspiring  power,  his  truth,  and  his  love.  Faith 
in  him  is  faith  in  the  God  whom  he  sees,  his 
Father  and  our  Father,  his  God  and  our  God.  It 
is  a  faith  which  reconciles  reason  and  religion,  na- 
ture and  grace,  law  and  love.  All  the  laws  of  the 
universe  are  but  the  manifestation  of  the  Divine 
truth  ;  and  all  the  progress,  life,  and  joy  of  the  uni- 
verse are  but  the  manifestation  of  the  Divine  love. 

"  He  who  believeth  in  me,"  says  Jesus,  "  believ- 
eth  not  in  me,  but  in  him  who  hath  sent  me." 

There  are  two  systems  .of .  thought  in  relation  to 
Christ.  According  to  one  of  these  systems,  faith  in 
Christ  means  believing  a  great  deal  about  him  per- 
sonally. It  is  to  believe  that  in  some  mysterious 
way  he  is  God.  It  is  to  believe  that  by  some  mys- 
terious transaction  he  has  satisfied  the  justice  of 
God  by  his  death.  It  is  to  believe  that  if  we  pro- 
fess faith  in  him,  and  openly  declare  that  he  is  our 
Saviour,  he  will  induce  God  to  forgive  us  and  to 
save  us.  The  other  system  of  thought  always  car- 
ries us  through  Christ  to  God,  his  Father  and  ours. 
"When  we  believe  in  Christ,  we  do  not  believe  in 


SALVATION   BY  FAITH.  343 

Christ,  but  in  him  who  sent  him.  He  teaches  us  to 
see  God  near  to  us,  helping  us,  blessing  us,  saving 
us.  To  believe  in  Christ,  according  to  this  system, 
is  to  believe  in  what  Christ  believes ;  to  believe  in 
purity  of  heart,  in  honesty  of  life,  in  humility,  in 
hope,  in  magnanimity.  Jesus  does  not  care  for  our 
admiring  him,  or  praising  him,  or  confessing  him. 
He  wishes  us  to  admire  his  truth,  to  confess  his 
gospel,  to  walk  in  his  way,  whether  we  say  anything 
of  him  or  not.  He  says,  "  My  doctrine  is  not  mine, 
but  his  that  sent  me." 

What  is  it  to  believe  in  the  Divinity  of  Christ  ? 
According  to  one  view,  a  man  has  not  the  proper 
faith,  and  cannot  be  called  a  Christian,  unless  he  is 
willing  to  say  that  Jesus  is  God,  unless  he  will  put 
his  name  to  a  creed  calling  Christ  the  second  per- 
son in  the  Trinity.  It  is  thought  that  Jesus  is 
pleased  with  us  when  we  call  him  God,  and  dis- 
pleased when  we  refuse  to  give  him  that  great  title. 
It  is,  however,  not  in  the  least  necessary  to  under- 
stand how  he  is  Divine ;  only  let  a  man  say  Jesus  is 
Divine,  then  he  is  orthodox.  Indeed,  it  is  rather  a 
suspicious  circumstance  if  he  wishes  to  understand 
how  Jesus  is  Divine. 

All  this,  we  notice,  rests  on  the  assumption  that 
there    is    something    meritorious    in   using    certain 


344  COMMON-SENSE   IN   RELIGION. 

phrases  about  Jesus,  —  phrases  to  which  we  do  not 
and  cannot  attach  any  clear  meaning.  It  is  thought 
that  Christ  will  be  bitterly  offended  if  we  do  not  give 
him  his  proper  title,  and  that  he  cares,  as  men  care, 
for  outward  honors. 

The  whole  CathoHc  world  was  recently  convulsed 
with  the  question  whether  the  Pope  should  be  called 
infallible.  Each  of  the  bishops  had  left  the  gov- 
ernment of  his  respective  diocese,  and  the  Church 
was  left  to  govern  itself  as  it  could  without  bishops, 
while  they  stayed  at  Eome  to  decide  this  question. 
But  calling  the  Pope  infallible  does  not  make  him 
so.  He  was  just  as  liable  to  blunder  afterward  as 
before.  Tlie  present  pope,  Pio  N"ono,  began  his 
career  by  encouraging  free  thought;  he  ends  it  by 
crushing  it  down.  At  first  he  thought  it  right  to 
trust  in  the  people  ;  now  he  thinks  it  wrong.  Then 
he  believed  in  popular  government ;  now  he  abhors 
it.  If  he  was  right  then,  he  is  wrong  now ;  he  could 
not  possibly  have  been  infallible  both  times.  De- 
claring that  he  is  infallible,  even  by  a  great  una- 
nimity, does  not  alter  the  fact. 

Now,  many  Christians  wish  to  call  Christ  God, 
just  as  many  Catholics  wish  to  caU  the  Pope  infalli- 
ble. They  seem  to  think  something  will  be  gained 
by  this  use  of  words,  whether  the  words  signify 
anything  or  not. 


SALVATION   BY   FAITH.  345 

But  the  common-sense  view  of  the  Divinity  of 
Jesus  is  this :  Christ  is  Divine  because  his  character 
is  Divine,  because  he  shows  us  God.  In  proportion 
as  we  see  that  Divine  quality  in  his  soul  and  life,  we 
really  believe  in  his  Divinity.  We  may  call  him 
God  ever  so  loudly,  but  we  do  not  really  believe  him 
Divine  till  we  understand  that  his  generous  love  to 
his  fellow-men  is  a  Divine  quality ;  that  his  devotion 
to  truth,  justice,  freedom,  holiness,  is  Divine;  that, 
as  God  loves,  he  loved,  to  have  us  do  God's  will, 
rather  than  to  say  "Lord!  Lord!" 

When  we  say  that  Jesus  was  "  the  image  of  the 
invisible  God  " ;  when  we  call  him  "  the  word  made 
flesh  " ;  when  we  say  that  "  God  was  manifest  in  the 
flesh " ;  when  we  accept  his  statements,  "  I  and  my 
Father  are  one,"  ''  He  that  has  seen  me  has  seen  the 
Father,"  -^  what  do  we  mean  ?  According  to  one 
view,  we  mean  that  there  is  some  mysterious  hypostat- 
ic union  between  the  first  and  second  persons  in  the 
Trinity.  According  to  the  other  view,  we  mean 
that  Christ  in  his  life  and  character  shows  us  how 
God  feels ;  that  he  reveals  God ;  and  that  when  we 
see  how  Christ  loved,  spoke,  acted,  under  any  cir- 
cumstances, we  see  how  God  would  act,  feel,  and 
speak  under  the  same  circumstances.  That  is  com- 
mon-sense. 

15* 


34(5  COMMON-SENSE  IN   RELIGION. 

Now,  which  of  these  two  systems  is  most  likely 
to  produce  a  genuine  love  for  Christ  ?  Is  it  that 
which  shrouds  him  with  mystery,  which  makes  his 
goodness  mysterious,  his  work  mysterious,  his  char- 
acter supernatural ;  or  that  which  makes  all  his  life 
and  work  natural,  human,  brotherly  ?  What  do  we 
usually  love  the  most,  the  greatness  which  is  far 
away  above  us  in  some  higher  position,  some  great- 
ness of  rank  or  office,  or  is  it  the  greatness  which 
being  above  us  is  still  with  us ;  which  forgets  rank 
and  comes  down  to  our  side ;  which  renounces  posi- 
tion to  be  our  brother ;  which,  though  ever  so  high 
up  in  power,  character,  wisdom,  influence,  does  not 
disdain  to  sit  by  our  side,  to  take  our  hand,  to  share 
our  human  fortunes  and  misfortunes,  and  put  itself 
exactly  on  our  level  ?  That  is  the  goodness  which 
charms  us,  the  greatness  which  is  also  lovable.  And 
this  is  the  goodness  and  greatness  of  Jesus.  It  is 
that,  being  in  the  very  form  of  God,  being  the  high- 
est image  of  God,  having  come  nearer  to  God  than 
any  other,  he  did  not  make  that  his  boast  or  his 
glory,  but  rather  took  pride  in  being  like  aU  other 
men,  making  himself  the  friend  of  all,  the  pure  and 
the  impure,  the  true  and  the  false,  the  respectable 
and  the  contemptible.  This  was  what  seemed  to 
strike  the  Apostle  Paul  with  wonder  and  admiration ; 


SALVATION   BY   FAITH.  347 

this  is  what  has  drawn  human  hearts  to  Jesus,  —  not 
his  supernatural  attributes,  but  his  natural  ones ;  not 
his  mysterious  Divinity,  but  his  simple  humanity. 

Here  are  two  exhibitions,  we  will  suppose ;  the 
one  is  in  legerdemain,  the  other  one  is  in  natural 
philosophy.  Both  the  exhibitors  do  things  which  we 
cannot  comprehend  ;  both  perform  wonderful  experi- 
ments. But  the  object  of  the  first,  in  all  that  he 
does,  is  to  make  it  seem  as  if  he  possessed  some  inex- 
plicable and  superhuman  power.  These  marvels  are 
done  by  him  ;  he  alone  has  power  to  do  them.  The 
object  of  the  natural  philosopher,  on  the  other  hand, 
is  to  caU  attention  not  to  himself,  to  his  skill,  his 
adroitness,  but  to  the  laws  of  God,  by  which  these 
strange  results  are  produced.  He  always  diverts 
attention  from  himself  to  the  science  which  he  is 
illustrating.  While  we  listen,  we  do  not  think  of 
the  lecturer,  his  knowledge,  his  skill,  but  of  the 
wonderful  phenomena  in  nature  which  he  is  unfolding 
before  us.  When  Faraday  lectures,  we  do  not  think 
of  Faraday,  but  of  chemistry.  When  Agassiz  lec- 
tures, we  are  entranced  with  the  mysteries  of  radiata 
and  moUusks.  When  Arago  discourses,  we  rise  to  the 
stars,  and  feel  the  sweet  influences  of  the  Pleiades. 

Now,  it  is  quite  evident  that  Jesus  in  all  his  teach- 
ing is  not  like  the  juggler,  who  wishes  to  direct  the 


348  COMMON-SENSE  IN  RELIGION. 

astonishment  of  the  audience  to  himself,  but  like  the 
lecturer,  who  seeks  to  guide  our  wonder  to  the  great 
facts  and  laws  of  the  universe. 

No  doubt  the  lecturer  may  often  have  occasion  to 
refer  to  himself  in  the  course  of  his  teaching.  He 
may  say,  for  example,  "  Please  to  give  me  your  at- 
tention. I  wish  you  now  to  listen  to  what  I  have  to 
say  on  this  point."  Or  he  may  tell  his  audience  that 
he  has  been  able  to  unfold  some  problem  hitherto 
insoluble,  or  that  he  has  traversed  fields  of  knowl- 
edge before  unexplored,  or  that  he  can  show  that  the 
theories  of  former  investigators  are  erroneous.  But 
while  doing  this,  he  does  it  in  order  to  lead  us  to  the 
truth,  and  to  persuade  us  to  receive  it. 

And  so  also  it  is  true  that  Jesus  calls  for  faith  in 
himself.  He  says  that  he  is  the  door,  that  he  is  the 
true  vine,  that  he  is  the  good  shepherd,  that  he  is  the 
living  bread.  But  his  object  in  all  this  is  practical ; 
it  is  to  lead  men  not  to  himself,  but  through  himself 
to  God.  How  are  we  to  have  faith  in  Christ  as  the 
door?  Kot  by  bowing  down  and  worshipping  the 
door,  but  by  rising  up  and  going  through  it.  How 
are  we  to  have  faith  in  him  as  the  true  vine  ?  Not 
by  loudly  declaring  that  we  believe  him  to  be  the 
vine,  but  by  gathering  and  taking  away  the  fruit 
he  bears.     How  do  we  show  our  faith  in  him  as  the 


SALVATION   BY  FAITH.  349 

living  bread  ?  Surely  by  feeding  our  souls  with  it 
day  by  day.  And  how  do  we  most  sincerely  show 
our  belief  in  him  as  the  good  shepherd,  unless  it  be 
by  joining  his  flock  and  following  him  ? 

Thus  we  may  see  that  salvation  by  faith  is  a  uni- 
versal law  of  the  moral  universe.  It  is  no  arbitrary 
enactment  or  dogma  of  Christianity  alone,  but  it  is 
based  in  the  very  nature  of  man.  All  moral  and 
spiritual  life  comes  from  faith  in  things  unseen.  All 
real  knowledge  has  its  roots  in  faith ;  all  moral 
power  is  bom  out  of  faith ;  all  generous  goodness 
and  truth  is  rooted  in  faith.  He  who  doubts  is  a  lost 
soul ;  that  is,  he  has  lost  his  way.  Lost  souls  are 
simply  those  who  have  lost  their  way.  Jesus  came 
to  seek  and  save  these  lost  souls  by  giving  them 
some  clear,  strong  convictions  by  which  to  live  and 
die.  Inspired  by  him,  "  all  who  are  in  their  graves " 
hear  his  voice  and  come  forth.  The  poor,  suffering, 
lonely  man,  bereft  of  all,  sick,  in  prison,  condemned 
to  die,  is  safe  and  happy  if  he  has  faith  in  God, 
truth,  immortality.  What  can  man  do  to  him  ?  He 
may  have  trials  of  cruel  mockings  and  scourgings, 
yea,  moreover,  of  bonds  and  imprisonment.  But  his 
hope  sustains  him,  for  he  believes  that  neither  life 
nor  death,  nor  things  present  nor  things  to  come, 
can  ever  separate  him  from  the  love  of  God. 


350  COMMON-SENSE  IN  RELIGION. 

What  we  need  most  of  all  and  always  is  some  great 
belief,  some  strong  conviction,  some  realizing  sense 
of  spiritual  things.  Then  we  are  young,  though 
years  and  cares  have  marked  wrinkles  on  our  brow. 
We  are  full  of  life,  though  on  the  verge  of  the 
tomb.  We  are  happy,  hopeful,  contented,  and  have 
an  inward  peace  which  is  better  than  all  the  treas- 
ures of  this  world. 


XVI. 
ON  NOT  BEING  AFRAID. 


-XVI. 

ON  NOT  BEING  AFRAID. 

Maf^  years  ago  I  heard  John  Pierpont  preach  a 
sermon  from  the  text,  "  I  was  afraid "  (Matt.  xxv. 
25).  It  was  in  Louisville,  Kentucky,  and  he  preached 
it  in  the  Unitarian  church.  A  great  congregation 
had  assembled  to  hear  him,  for  Kentuckians  were 
good  judges  of  oratory,  and  knew  the  power  of  Mr. 
Pierpont.  His  subject  was  the  duty  of  free  inquiry. 
He  said  that  the  faculty  of  thought  was  a  talent  for 
the  use  of  which  we  must  account  to  God.  We  were 
bound  to  exercise  it  on  religious  subjects,  as  well  as 
upon  other  subjects,  and  we  ought  freely  to  inquire 
into  the  truth  of  the  popular  doctrines,  even  at  the 
risk  of  being  accounted  heretics.  The  reason  why  so 
few  actually  examine  the  truth  or  falsehood  of  re- 
ligious doctrines  was,  he  said,  that  of  the  servant  in 
the  parable,  —  "  They  are  afraid."  So  they  bury  their 
talent  in  the  earth,  and  hide  their  Lord's  money. 
Some,  he  said,  are  afraid  of  giving  offence  by  denying 
popular  doctrines.  Some  are  afraid  of  displeasing 
their  friends  or  their  families.     Some  are  afraid  of 


354  COMMON-SENSE  IN  RELIGION. 

losing  their  position  in  society,  some  of  losing  their 
customers  and  their  business.  So  they  conform  out 
of  fear ;  and  if  they  cannot  believe,  they  can,  at  any 
rate,  make  believe.  "Perhaps,  however,"  Mr.  Pier- 
pont  added,  "  you  will  not  admit  that  you  are  influ- 
enced by  such  motives.  You  will  say,  '  We  are  not 
afraid  of  human  opposition  or  persecution.  We  are 
Kentuckians,  and  are  not  afraid  of  what  people  may 
do  or  say.  But  we  confess  that  we  are  afraid  of  dis- 
pleasing God  by  rejecting  what  we  are  told  to  be- 
lieve.' Ah !  but,"  continued  Mr.  Pierpont,  "  do  you 
not  see  that  this  was  exactly  the  condition  of  the 
servant  in  the  parable  ?  He  was  not  afraid  of  his 
fellow-servants,  he  was  afraid  of  his  master.  *  I 
knew  thee  to  be  an  hard  man,  reaping  where  thou  hast 
not  sown,  and  gathering  where  thou  hast  not  strewed : 
and  I  was  afraid,  and  went  and  hid  thy  talent  in  the 
earth.'  It  was  fear  of  his  master,  not  of  his  fellow- 
servants,  which  caused  the  servant  to  hide  his  talent 
in  the  earth.  It  was  because  he  believed  his  master 
to  be  exacting,  intolerant  of  weakness,  determined  to 
have  all  he  could  get  out  of  his  servants,  —  a  m&,n  of 
strict  rules,  of  inflexible  purpose,  just,  but  not  merci- 
ful, requiring  the  uttermost  farthing  of  every  debt  to 
be  paid.  It  was  taking  this  view  of  his  master 
which  paralyzed  him.     He  thought  he  never  could 


ON  NOT  BEING  AFRAID.  355 

do  enough,  so  he  would  not  do  anything.  But  he 
was  not  logical  in  this :  fear  never  is  logical.  If  he 
believed  his  master  so  severe  and  so  strict,  he  ought 
to  have  done  all  he  could  to  meet  his  requisitions." 

I  well  recollect  the  impression  made  by  this  dis- 
course of  Mr.  Pierpont,  especially  the  passage  in 
which  he  said  "  We  are  Kentuckians^'  at  which  point 
a  thrill  of  satisfaction  pervaded  the  congregation. 
And  I  have  frequently  thought  I  should  like  to 
show  how  often  fear  of  God  is  a  temptation  and  a 
source  of  evil;  and  how  courage  toward  God  is  a 
Christian  virtue,  and  a  very  necessary  one  to  enable 
us  to  perform  our  duties. 

There  is  a  kind  of  fear,  I  know,  which  is  not  in- 
consistent with  courage,  and  which  even  makes  men 
more  courageous.  Fear  of  danger,  if  it  produces  cau- 
tion and  precaution,  gives  presence  of  mind  when 
danger  comes.  A  man  who  has  no  sense  of  fear  can 
have  no  real  courage.  Having  no  sense  of  danger, 
he  can  show  no  heroism  in  meeting  danger.  A  blind 
man  who  walks  directly  up  to  a  mad  bull,  not  seeing 
the  animal,  shows  no  courage  in  so  doing.  But  he 
who,  to  save  a  little  child  from  being  tossed  or 
tmmpled,  should,  notwithstanding  his  fear,  defy 
the  savage  beast,  would  be  truly  brave.  Without 
some  sense  of  fear  there  can  be  no  courage;   and 


356  COMMON-SENSE  IN  EELIGION. 

without  apprehension,  or  the  perception  of  coming 
danger,  there  can  be  no  presence  of  mind  when  it 
comes.  I  have  been  on  a  steamboat  on  the  Mis- 
sissippi, where  the  passengers  were  mostly  of  that 
reckless,  careless  class  which  a  superficial  judgment 
would  call  brave.  But  when  an  accident  happened 
they  were  all  in  the  wildest  confusion,  and  had  no 
presence  of  mind.  The  anticipation  of  danger  alone 
gives  self-possession  when  danger  comes. 

Where  there  is  danger,  it  ought  to  be  seen  and 
shunned.  We  should  fear  to  run  unnecessary  risks. 
I  would  not  expose  my  body  unnecessarily  to  yellow- 
fever,  or  any  other  contagious  disease.  Nor  would  I 
expose  my  soul  unnecessarily  to  the  contagion  of 
bad  books,  bad  society,  corrupting  sights,  and  the 
fascinations  of  those  pleasures  which  lead  to  destruc-. 
tion  of  soul  and  body  both.  But  if  I  had  a  reason 
for  running  the  risk,  if  the  danger  lay  in  the  path  of 
duty,  then  I  should  wish  to  encounter  it,  trusting  in 
God. 

We  ought  to  fear  evil,  but  we  ought  not  to  be 
afraid  of  it.  A  good  soldier  is  one  who  neither 
slights  nor  dreads  his  enemy.  A  good  general  seeks 
to  know  exactly  what  is  the  power  of  his  opponent, 
and  whether  with  ten  thousand  men  he  can  meet 
him  who  comes  against  him  with  twenty  thousand. 


ON  NOT  BEING  AFRAID.  357 

But  he  is  never  afraid,  never  loses  Ms  self-possession, 
never  despairs,  never  gives  -up.  No  matter  what  the 
odds  are,  no  matter  how  desperate  his  position  ap- 
pears, he  never  buries  his  talent  in  the  earth,  but 
watches  for  every  chance,  takes  advantage  of  every 
favorable  circumstance ;  and  so  at  last  often  redeems 
the  lost  battle  by  his  inexhaustible  hope  and  unfail- 
ing courage.     He  always  fears,  but  is  never  afraid. 

The  good  captain  fears  beforehand,  when  the  danger 
is  far  off;  so  he  is  not  afraid  when  it  comes.  The 
bad  captain  is  bold  and  defiant  beforehand ;  but 
when  the  overwhelming  attack  comes,  he  loses  his 
head,  and  can  do  nothing.  This  shows  the  difference 
between  the  wise  and  the  foolish  fear.  The  wise 
fear  is  caution,  and  produces  prudence;  the  foolish 
fear  is  cowardice,  and  ends  in  paralysis.  To  put  the 
matter  briefly,  let  us  say  that  "  we  ought  often  to 
fear,  hut  ought  Twver  to  he  afraid!' 

We  ought  to  fear  God,  but  not  to  be  afraid  of  him. 
The  wicked  servant  in  the  parable  thought  about  his 
master  just  as  many  people  think  about  him  now. 
The  view  of  God  given  by  many  Christian  preachers 
is  that  he  is  a  hard  man,  reaping  where  he  has  not 
sown,  gathering  where  he  has  not  strewed,  and  com- 
manding us  to  make  bricks  without  straw. 

The  doctrine  of  Total  Depravity,  for  instance,  so 


358  COMMON-SENSE   IN   RELIGION. 

long  taught  in  our  churches,  takes  this  view  of  God. 
According  to  this,  God  causes  men  to  be  born  totally 
depraved,  and  then  requires  of  them  to  be  perfectly 
holy.  He  expects  to  gather  grapes  of  thorns  and 
figs  of  thistles.  He  sends  people  to  heU  for  not 
doing  what  they  are  unable  to  do.  Happily,  this 
doctrine  is  passing  by.  But  another  view  of  God 
remains,  which  is  also  erroneous.  It  is  that  he  is 
a  purely  moral  being,  a  God  of  strict  law,  subject  to 
law  himself,  not  above  it,  one  who  would  be  glad  to 
pardon  if  he  could,  but  unable  to  do  so ;  obliged  to 
be  "  a  hard  man,"  incapable  of  helj^ing  his  children, 
answering  their  prayers,  or  coming  into  any  real 
communion  with  them.  This  was  the  God  of 
Judaism;  this  is  the  God  of  mere  materialism. 
Both  views  regard  God  mainly  as  law,  —  strict,  im- 
partial law,  —  not  as  love.  But  this  view  also  sepa- 
rates the  soul  from  him,  and  causes  us  to  look  on 
him  not  as  a  father,  but  a  judge. 

"  Perfect  love,"  says  the  Apostle,  "  casts  out  fear." 
As  long  as  we  fear  God  "  w^e  are  not  made  perfect 
in  love."  The  power  of  Christianity  lies  in  giving 
us  certain  confidence  in  God.  Those  who  speak 
of  his  wrath,  who  represent  him  as  a  God  of  terror, 
are  not,  while  they  do  this,  preaching  Christianity. 
They  have  backslidden  to  paganism.      Superstition 


ON   NOT  BEING  AFEAID.  359 

makes  men  afraid  of  God;  Christianity  never  does 
that. 

How  would  you  like  to  have  your  little  children 
made  afraid  of  you  ?  How  would  you  like  to  have 
their  nurse  or  their  teacher,  when  you  are  absent,  try 
to  frighten  them  into  doing  right  by  telling  them 
what  an  awful  thing  it  would  be  to  fall  into  the 
hands  of  their  father  and  mother  ?  Would  you  like 
to  be  described  as  stern,  inflexible  justice ;  to  have 
the  children  taught  to  say  "Our  father  is  a  consum- 
ing fire  "  ?  You  would  not  like  it  ?  Then  do  as  you 
would  be  done  by.  Do  not  believe  about  your  Fa- 
ther what  you  do  not  wish  your  children  to  believe 
about  their  father.  Learn  to  trust  in  God  altogether 
and  always,  —  when  you  are  good,  when  you  are  bad. 
Then  you  are  safe.     This  is  the  gospel 

The  gospel  means  good  news.  It  would  not  be  a 
gospel  if  it  were  not  news,  and  it  w^ould  not  be  a  gospel 
if  it  were  not  good  news.  It  is  always  good  news  to 
us  to  be  told  that  God  really  loves  us,  is  ready  to  for- 
give us,  and  means  to  save  us  from  evil  We  find  it 
hard  to  believe  this ;  it  seems  too  good  to  be  true. 
It  is  no  news  that  we  are  sinners.  We  know  that  well 
enough ;  and  if  it  were  news,  it  would  certainly  not 
be  good  news.  Therefore  the  doctrine  of  human  sin- 
fulness is  no  part  of  the  gospel     It  is  no  news  that 


360  COMMON-SENSE  IN   RELIGION. 

sin  is  always  producing  misery,  that  the  sinner  is 
always  wretched.  Therefore  the  doctrine  of  punish- 
ment is  no  part  of  the  gospel.  But  the  essence  of 
the  gospel,  and  that  which  gives  it  all  its  power  is, 
that,  thovygh  we  «re  sinners,  and  in  spite  of  our  sin, 
God  is  our  Father  and  our  best  friend ;  that  he  feels 
for  us  an  infinite  pity,  an  infinite  tenderness,  and 
asks  us  only  to  love  him  and  trust  him,  so  that  he 
may  save  us  from  our  sins  by  the  power  of  that 
love  and  that  trust. 

Many  people  are  afraid  of  free  inquiry  and  its  re- 
sults. They  fear  that  truth  will  be  overturned  by 
it ;  or,  if  not  that,  that  harm  will  be  done  to  weak 
consciences.  No  doubt  some  are  to  be  fed  on  milk, 
and  others  on  meat.  But  I  do  not  think  that  we 
should  ever  be  afraid  of  inquiry.  It  is  too  late  in 
the  day,  Christianity  has  stood  a  thousand  attacks, 
and  stands  very  firmly  still.  It  is  because  it  is 
founded  on  a  rock.  The  victory  which  Plotinus  and 
Porphyry,  Marcion  and  Lucian,  the  Emperor  Julian 
and  the  great  Stoics  Aurelius,  Epictetus,  and  Seneca, 
failed  to  gain,  is  not,  to  aU  appearance  (as  Macaulay 
says),  reserved  for  any  other  in  this  age.  Voltaire 
thought  that  he  and  his  friends  had  demolished  Chris- 
tianity in  Erance.  His  wit  and  words  have  faded 
away,  but  Christianity  is  as  strong  as  before.     This 


ON   NOT  BEING   AFRAID.  361 

teaches  us  not  to  be  afraid  of  free  inquiry,  but  to 
welcome  it. 

But  many  people  are  daunted  by  the  evils  of  life. 
They  lose  their  courage  and  hope  when  they  contem- 
plate the  amount  of  poverty,  vice,  sickness,  pain, 
ignorance,  brutality,  knavery,  fraud,  in  the  world. 
They  say.  What  is  the  use  ?  How  little  can  we  do 
to  oppose  this  black  flood  which  sweeps  on  and  on, 
notwithstanding  the  dikes  which  we  oppose  to  it  by 
means  of  churches,  schools,  laws,  and  Christian  civ- 
ilization !  Why  try  to  do  anything  ?  We  can  do  so 
little  !  Let  us  try  to  keep  ourselves  as  clean  as  we 
can.  Let  us  put  our  own  talent  in  a  clean  cloth,  and 
bury  it  where  it  will  not  get  lost.  That  is  all  we 
can  hope  to  accomplish. 

A  good  deal  of  Christianity  has  gone  on  this  prin- 
ciple. It  has  only  aimed  at  keeping  the  good  good. 
It  has  put  good  people  together  in  churches,  and 
left  the  bad  people  to  themselves.  This  is  the 
napkin  theory  of  Christianity.  It  was  the  source 
of  monasticism.  Every  monastery  and  nunnery  is  a 
napkin  in  which  a  certain  amount  of  innocence  is 
wrapt  up  and  hidden  away  to  be  kept  safe.  Many 
of  our  Protestant  churches  are  little  better  than  mon- 
asteries. They  also  aim  at  putting  good  people  to- 
gether, not  at  seeking  and  saving  bad  ones.     All  this 

16 


362  COMMON-SENSE   IN   RELIGION. 

arises,  not  from  inhumanity,  or  indifference  to  sorrow 
and  sin,  but  from  fear.  They  are  afraid  to  attack 
evil,  —  it  seems  so  strong,  so  much  stronger  than  God 
or  Christ  or  Christianity.  It  is  because  we  do  not 
believe  that  Jesus  is  really  the  Christ  now  ;  the  King 
of  the  world  now ;  we  do  not  believe  that  his 
religion  is  really  strong  enough  to  cure  the  sin, 
vice,  and  woe  of  mankind.  We  are  expecting  a 
second  coming  of  Christ  at  some  future  time,  when 
he  will  come  in  the  clouds,  with  angel  and  trumpet. 
AVe  want  a  sign  from  heaven ;  something  more  pow- 
erful than  truth  and  love.  The  real  evil  is  want  of 
faith  in  the  power  of  the  gospel ;  want  of  faith  in  a 
Christ  as  a  present  Saviour,  not  merely  a  past  Sa- 
viour or  a  future  Saviour.  We  need  to  believe  that 
now  is  the  accepted  time,  that  now  is  the  day  of 
salvation.  Therefore  we  say  to  God,  "  I  am  afraid." 
We  believe  God  to  be  a  hard  master,  —  asking  us  to 
convert  the  world,  and  not  giving  us  any  power  with 
which  to  do  it. 

The  only  faith  which  saves  us  is  that  which  en- 
ables us  to  save  others.  And  this  faith  is  to  believe 
that  God  is  always  ready  to  give  us  the  power  to  do 
anything  which  ought  to  be  done.  If  there  is  a  woe, 
a  wrong,  a  sin,  to  be  removed,  then  God  has  given  us 
power  with  which  to  do  it.  If  we  can  believe  this, 
we  shall  never  be  afraid. 


ON   NOT   BEING  AFRAID. 


This  is  a  very  simple  test  of  genuine  faith  in 
Christ.  If  you  have  faith  enough  in  Jesus  as  the 
Christ  of  God  to  enable  you  to  undertake  his  work 
of  saving  your  fellow-men  f^om  sin  and  misery  here 
and  hereafter,  then  you  may  be  sure  that  you  have 
the  true  faith.  Hereby  do  we  know  that  we  know 
him,  if  we  keep  his  commandments.  But  if  you 
have  not  the  courage  to  do  this  work,  if  you  are 
afraid  to  attempt  it  lest  you  should  not  succeed,  then, 
though  you  preach  faith  in  Christ  as  the  Omnipotent 
God,  and  utter  that  doctrine  with  the  tongues  of 
men  and  angels,  yet  you  prove  by  your  own  coward- 
ice in  the  presence  of  evil  that  you  havQ  no  real  faith 
in  him  as  an  actual  Saviour  of  actual  men  and 
women.  Faith,  if  genuine,  works  by  love,  and  love 
casts  out  fear. 

Some  persons  are  afraid  of  being  laughed  at.  The 
hell  which  terrifies  thera  is  ridicule.  I  think  this 
was  the  fear  which  led  Peter  to  deny  his  master. 
He  found  himself  among  a  crowd  to  whom  Jesus 
appeared  as  a  wild  fanatic,  whom  no  sensible  person 
could  possibly  esteem.  To  profess  himself  a  disciple 
of  such  a  one  would  have  been  to  expose  himself  to 
the  derision  of  the  soldiers  and  maid-servants.  Peter 
was  always  impressed  by  those  around  him;  he 
was  one  of  that   class  wloich  agrees  with  the  last 


364  COMMOX-SENSE   IN    RELIGION. 

speaker.  Such  is  the  habit  of  sympathetic  natures. 
They  take  the  color  of  their  surroundings.  They 
cannot  bear  to  be  thought  queer.  If  a  person  says 
"  How  singular  I "  that  daunts  them.  So  they  do  not 
stand  by  their  colors,  but  desert  them.  They  might 
bear  a  volley  of  shot,  but  a  volley  of  laughter  makes 
them  run.  This  awful  experience  of  Peter  did  not 
quite  cure  him;  for  afterward  he  had  a  double  face 
to  the  Gentiles  when  he  was  with  them  alone,  and 
afterward  when  Jews  were  present.  So  Paul  had  to 
rebuke  him  to  his  face  for  his  duplicity.  This  is  the 
way  with  those  who  have  large  organs  of  sympathy 
and  of  the  lo¥e  of  approbation.  Often  the  very  sweet- 
ness of  their  disposition  exposes  them  to  this  tempta- 
tion. The  cure  for  it  is  to  go  down  deep  into  princi- 
ples ;  to  see  clearly  what  their  convictions  are,  and  so 
to  cleave  to  them.  The  superficial  froth  of  social  opin- 
ion is  really  not  anything  to  be  afraid  of.  One  per- 
son who  knows  what  he  believes  and  why  he  believes 
it  is  more  than  a  match  for  a  crowd  who  only  think 
what  they  suppose  other  people  think,  because  every 
one  else  thinks  it.  A  man  with  a  clear  conviction  in 
liis  mind  is  like  Horatius;  he  can  hold  the  bridge 
against  an  army.  Stand  fast  on  your  instincts, — 
your  instinctive  convictions,  your  instinctive  sense  of 
right,  your  instinctive  feeling  of  what  is  honorable. 


ON  NOT   BEING  AFRAID.  365 

For,  as  Mr.  Emerson  says,  "  let  only  the  single  man 
plant  himself  on  his  instincts,  and  this  great  world 
will,  by  and  by,  come  round  him."  Mr.  Emerson 
himself  has  been  an  example  of  this.  His  notions 
were  at  first  ridiculed  and  opposed  as  absurd  and 
dangerous  novelties  ;  now  they  are  welcomed  by  the 
best  brains  in  Europe  and  America. 

Sometimes  we  are  afraid  of  being  called  afraid. 
We  run  foolish  risks  to  show  our  courage ;  but  we 
are  really  hereby  showing  our  cowardice.  Where 
duelling  is  popular,  men  fight  duels  because  they 
are  afraid  of  being  called  cowards  if  they  do  not  fight. 
Young  men  brought  up  in  temperate  and  virtuous 
habits  very  often  take  their  first  step  in  a  ruinous 
dissipation  for  fear  of  being  called  afraid.  **  What  ? 
are  you  afraid  to  drink  ?  afraid  to  smoke  ?  afraid  to 
play  for  money  ? "  "  Not  I, "  he  replies.  "  Who 's 
afraid  ? "  So  also  may  people  go  into  expenses  be- 
yond their  means,  expenses  they  have  no  right  to 
incur,  lest  people  should  say  that  they  are  afraid  to 
spend  their  money.  The  last  act  of  moral  courage  is 
not  merely  to  conquer  your  own  fear,  but  to  conquer 
your  fear  of  what  others  may  think  you  fear. 

Some  people  are  subject  to  bondage  all  their  lives 
from  fear  of  poverty.  They  are  always  anxious  lest 
they  should  die  in  the  poorhouse.     But  suppose  we 


366  COMMON-SENSE   IN    KELIGION. 

do  have  to  die  in  the  poorhouse ;  we  shall  not  mind 
it  when  we  are  dead,  I  suppose.  Why  be  afraid  of 
what  may  never  come  ?  Jesus  told  his  disciples  to 
see  how  God  clothed  the  flowers  and  fed  the  birds. 
Let  us  look  and  see  the  wonderful  way  in  which  he 
feeds  and  clothes  the  inhabitants  of  a  great  city 
every  day.  Who  distributes  the  work  to  be  done  ? 
who  says  that  so  many  men  shall  be  employed  in 
trade,  so  many  in  manufactures ;  that  there  shall  be 
so  many  blacksmiths,  carpenters,  painters ;  so  many 
druggists,  provision-dealers,  booksellers,  hardware 
men,  physicians,  dentists  ?  See  by  what  curious  so- 
cial laws  society  is  arranged,  cities  built,  civilization 
advanced.  Then  go,  coward,  into  the  homes  of  the 
poor ;  of  those  who  have  no  house,  but  only  a  room, 
paid  for  by  the  week  or  month;  no  bonds  and  mort- 
gages, but  only  their  day's  labor  with  which  to  buy 
their  daily  bread.  They  stand  close  to  Providence. 
They  lean  on  God,  not  on  bonds  and  coupons.  See 
how  contented  and  cheerful  they  are.  They  know  on 
whom  they  depend.  Without,  perhaps,  saying  it  to 
themselves,  they  know  that  some  power  is  taking 
care  of  them  every  day,  and  they  are  made  coura- 
geous by  that  experience. 

Some  people  are  afraid  of  death,  and  so  are  afraid 
all  their  lifetime.      They  seem  to  think  that  God, 


ox   NOT  BEING  AFRAID.  367 

who  provides  for  them  while  they  live  in  this  won- 
derful home,  will  desert  them  when  they  die.  They 
think  that  he,  who  has  ordained  death  for  all  his 
children,  has  left  us  to  die  without  any  care  or  pro- 
vision  for  what  will  become  of  us  at  that  time. 
When  we  are  well,  and  can  take  some  care  of  our- 
selves, we  know  that  God  cares  for  us ;  but  we  think 
that  when  we  become  utterly  helpless,  then  he  de- 
serts us.  But  soft  as  infant's  sleep  shall  be  the 
coming  of  death  to  you  and  to  me.  Sweet  shall  be 
that  rest  as  it  falls  on  the  soul  weary  with  work,  and 
the  body  exhausted  by  years.  Tenderly  shall  that 
death-cloud  envelope  us,  and  hide  all  familiar  things 
from  our  failing  sight.  And  when  we  awake  again, 
with  no  abrupt  transition,  with  no  astonishment,  but 
with  a  serene  satisfaction,  shall  we  find  ourselves 
softly  led  into  new  being  in  the  midst  of  old 
and  new  friends.  We  shall  be  in  the  presence  of  a 
more  divine  beauty  than  that  of  this  world ;  and 
with  faculties  opening  into  greater  power  to  meet 
the  new  knowledge  and  the  new  work  of  that  next 
world,  that  vast  beyond. 

Do  you  ask  me  how  I  know  this  ?  Why,  I  know 
it  just  as  your  little  children  know  that  when  they 
go  home  at  night,  tired  and  weary,  they  go  to  find 
their  little  bed  all  made  up  for  them,  their  supper  all 


368  COMMON-SENSE   IN   RELIGION. 

ready  on  the  table,  their  father's  arms,  their  mother's 
lap,  —  their  older  sisters  to  untie  their  cloak  and  help 
them  change  their  shoes.  They  do  not  really  know 
it,  but  they  believe  in  it.  They  are  not  afraid  to  go 
home.  No,  they  run  home  gladly,  believing  in  the 
love  waiting  for  them  there.  So  we  may  run  home 
when  God  calls  us,  sure  that  an  infinite  love  awaits 
us  in  our  Father's  house  with  its  many  mansions. 

The  miracles  which  Christ  wrought  seemed  mostly 
intended  to  convince  the  disciples  of  his  power ;  to 
give  them  confidence  in  him,  as  one  able  to  do  all 
that  he  undertook.  They  were  not  intended  to  oper- 
ate as  signs,  and  to  convince  the  world  generally  of 
his  being  Christ.  They  were  chiefly  to  educate  his 
own  Apostles  into  faith  and  courage.  That  order  of 
miracles  we  do  not  now  see.  But  there  is  another 
kind  of  miracle  which  we  all  can  witness  whenever 
we  will.  It  is  the  power  which  God  will  give  to  us 
with  which  to  do  good,  whenever  we  are  ready  to  go 
in  his  strength  to  try  to  do  it.  Do  you  know  of  any 
case  of  vice  or  of  sorrow  which  it  seems  almost  im- 
possible to  relieve  or  cure  ?  Go  and  see  if  God  will 
not  work  a  miracle  through  your  mind  and  heart,  giv- 
ing your  actions  and  words  a  power  not  their  own, 
so  that  you  can  make  the  blind  see,  the  lame  walk, 
and  raise  up  the  dead.    You  must  go  in  faith,  how- 


ON   NOT  BEING  AFRAID.  369 

ever,  trusting  entirely  that,  if  the  thing  ought  to  be 
done,  God  will  give  you  strength  to  do  it.  You  must 
go  also  in  the  spirit  of  prayer ;  not  with  the  prayer 
of  words,  but  that  essential  prayer  which  consists  in 
keeping  one's  self  in  a  condition  of  faith  and  hope, 
leaning  on  God. 

Such  miracles  as  these  are  being  done  every  day 
wherever  there  is  any  genuine  Christianity.  They 
demand  as  much  courage  as  has  usually  been  shown 
on  the  field  of  battle.  It  is  a  fight,  "  not  against  flesh 
and  blood,"  but  against  the  powers  of  darkness  and 
"  spiritual  wickedness  in  high  places."  It  would  be 
easier  for  many  a  man  to  charge  with  the  six  hundred 
into  the  Valley  of  Death,  than  to  do  what  John  Wes- 
ley did,  when  he  took  his  hymn-book  and  stood  on  a 
barrel  at  the  corner  of  two  streets  in  the  foulest 
quarter  of  I.ondon,  and  there,  surrounded  by  a  crowd 
of  blasphemous  and  jeering  heathens,  sang  and 
preached  and  prayed  till  a  great  quiet  came  over 
them,  and  the  Spirit  of  God  brought  tears  into  eyes 
unused  to  weep.  This  is  the  courage  born  of  faith, 
and  it  overcomes  the  world.  It  comes  from  believing 
in  a  living  God,  a  Friend,  a  Father ;  it  comes  from 
believing  in  a  practical  gospel  and  a  present  Saviour. 
This  gave  Luther  courage  to  stand  alone  against  the 
universal  Church  and  the  German  Empire ;  against 
16*  X 


370  COMMON-SENSE   IN   EELIGION, 

a  venerable  past,  gray  with  the  accumulated  rever- 
ence of  a  thousand  years ;  against  the  unanimity  of 
Europe ;  to  stand  alone,  but  not  alone,  —  for  he  leaned 
on  God. 

This  is  the  courageous  faith  which  carries  goodness 
forward.  It  does  not  merely  build  forts  to  defend 
what  is  already  conquered  from  the  domains  of  an- 
cient night,  but  it  levies  armies  to  assault  evil  in  its 
own  intrenchments.  It  inspired  the  courage  with 
which  William  Penn  and  his  Quakers  went  among 
the  savage  Indians;  with  no  weapons  but  justice  and 
good- will.  It  inspired  the  French  Jesuits,  who  with 
similar  success  penetrated  the  wilderness  of  Canada ; 
looked  on  Niagara,  which  had  never  before  been  seen 
by  civilized  man;  ascended  the  lakes,  crossed  the 
portage,  and  floated  their  canoes  on  the  waters  of  the 
Mississippi.  For  this  faith  is  always  the  same,  in  all 
churches,  Catholic  or  Protestant.  It  is  walking  with 
God,  to  do  his  will,  in  his  strength.  It  never  says 
"  I  was  afraid  " ;  it  knows  no  fear. 


XVII. 

HOPE. 


xvn. 

HOPE. 

It  is  said  of  Jesus,  that  "he  knew  what  was  in 
man."  This  was  part  of  his  power ;  for  a  knowledge 
of  man  is  as  necessary  for  a  religious  teacher  as  a 
knowledge  of  God.  But  religious  people  have  not 
been  famous  for  their  knowledge  of  men.  Ministers, 
especially,  have  often  been  singularly  ignorant  of  the 
world  and  its  ways.  Their  education  has  been  such 
as  to  prevent  them  from  acquiring  this  knowledge. 
Ministers  have  been  usually  made  out  of  good  little 
boys,  who  spent  their  time  at  school  and  college  in 
studying  their  books ;  who  then  went  to  a  divinity 
school  and  studied  books  several  more  years,  and 
who  never  saw  anything  of  the  world  or  of  mankind. 
They  have  had  few  of  the  common  trials,  none  of  the 
usual  temptations,  of  men.  They  yet  stand  up  in  a 
pulpit  to  direct  and  advise  and  teach. 

I  recollect,  when  I  was  a  boy,  there  was  an  old 
gentleman  in  the  town  where  I  spent  the  summer, 
w^ho  was  a  type  of  that  sort  of  minister.  He  was  a 
good,  kind-hearted  man,  but  like  an  infant  in  his 


374  COMMON-SENSE  IN   RELIGION. 

knowledge  of  the  world.  He  was  steeped  in  books, 
and  talked  about  a  Bible  he  was  supposed  to  be  pre- 
paring, but  which  never  was  written.  He  preached 
forty  or  fifty  years  in  that  parish,  and  I  suppose 
seldom  uttered  a  sentence  which  had  any  bearing 
on  human  life  or  human  conduct.  The  people,  how- 
ever, thought  it  all  right;  they  had  never  known 
anything  else,  and  they  did  not  think  it  a  part  of 
a  minister's  duty  to  know  what  is  in  man.  Fortu- 
nately, another  sort  of  ministers  is  coming  now, — 
those  who  know  something  of  the  world  and  its 
ways,  and  are  expected  to  help  men  to  live  good 
lives  here  in  this  world. 

But  Jesus  knew  what  was  in  man.  Having  suf- 
fered, being  tempted,  he  was  able  to  help  those  who 
suffer  and  are  tempted. 

What  most  persons  Call  a  knowledge  of  human 
nature  is  merely  a  knowledge  of  the  average  man,  or 
men  in  masses.  It  is  human  nature  as  it  appears  in 
life  and  conduct.  The  great  masters  of  this  science 
are  those  who  write  fables  and  utter  proverbs, — 
^sop,  Solomon,  and  Dr.  Franklin.  But  the  average 
man  is  in  all  men ;  and  so  these  proverbs  are  uni- 
versally applicable.  It  is  this  sort  of  knowledge 
which  enables  one  to  face  the  world  and  make  his 
way  through  life.     It  comes  from  experience,  and  is 


HOPE.  375 


rather  apt  to  consist  in  a  knowledge  of  human  folly 
and  weakness  than  of  human  strengtL  Men  who 
pride  themselves  on  their  knowledge  of  the  world 
usually  mean  their  knowledge  of  the  follies  and 
weaknesses  of  men.  They  usually  assume  that  all 
men  are  selfish,  that  all  have  a  price,  and  that  by 
means  of  bribery  and  cunning  you  can  attain  to  any 
success  in  the  world.  And  they  do,  very  often,  suc- 
ceed for  a  time,  and  acquire  a  certain  notoriety ;  but 
the  fabric  they  build  on  the  foundation  of  human 
weakness  is  itself  weak,  and  is  sure  to  fall  sooner 
or  later,  and  come  to  nothing.  It  is  a  house  built 
on  the  sand. 

Such  a  man  was  Louis  Napoleon.  His  system  of 
government  and  his  plan  of  action  was  to  make  use 
of  men's  vices  and  to  discourage  their  virtues.  Dur- 
ing twenty  years  he  did  all  he  could  to  demoralize 
France,  to  feed  its  love  of  military  glory,  to  culti- 
vate its  passion  for  display,  parade,  luxury,  extrava- 
gance. When  he  became  Emperor,  Victor  Hugo 
wrote  a  book  about  him,  very  keen  and  very  able, 
called  Napoleon  the  Little.  But  it  seemed  for  a 
long  time  that  Victor  Hugo  was  mistaken.  Napoleon 
appeared  to  be  a  great  success  and  a  mighty  power. 
All  Europe  admired  and  feared  him.  But  at  last 
the  bubble  broke,  and  now  all  men  see  that  he  was 


376  COMMON-SENSE  IN   RELIGION. 

*'  !N'apoleoii  the  Little,"  and  that  his  empire,  built  on 
human  vice  and  human  folly,  was  weaker  than  water. 
He  dies,  and  what  good  work  of  his  remains  ? 

The  first  man  who  dared  resist  Napoleon,  and  who 
sliowed  his  weakness  to  the  world,  was  Abraham 
Lincoln,  his  opposite  in  all  respects.  Lincoln  was 
honest,  and  believed  in  honesty.  He  had  no  tricks. 
He  did  not  know  how  to  flatter  or  to  bribe.  He 
knew  men,  for  he  had  grown  up  in  hardship,  labor, 
trial.  But  he  retained  his  faith  in  honesty,  and 
looked  for  honest  men  to  serve  him.  When  our  war 
was  over,  he  requested  Napoleon  to  remove  his  troops 
out  of  Mexico,  and  Napoleon  consented.  A  writer  in 
Blackwood,  Lever,  who  had  persistently  ridiculed  the 
North  and  Lincoln  during  the  whole  war,  writing 
under  the  name  of  "Cornelius  O'Dowd,"  then  said 
that  the  United  States  had  done  what  no  European 
government  —  no,  nor  all  the  European  governments 
united — would  have  dared  to  do.  The  United  States 
had  told  Napoleon-  to  withdraw  his  armies,  and  had 
been  obeyed. 

Cunning  may  endure  for  a  night,  but  honesty 
comes  in  the  morning.  Napoleon,  who  began  in 
strength,  ended  in  corruption  and  defeat ;  Lincoln, 
who  began  in  almost  hopeless  weakness,  ended  in 
triumphant  success.     The  knowledge  of  human  na- 


HOPE.  377 


ture  which  sees  in  man  only  weakness  and  selfish- 
ness is  not  as  wise  as  that  which  believes  that,  be- 
sides his  w^eakness  and  sin,  he  is  essentially  honest 
and  sincere,  —  loving  goodness,  and  not  loving  evil. 

What  we  call  Christianity  is  the  influence  which 
came  originally  from  Christ,  modified,  developed,  di- 
luted, adulterated,  but  still  retaining  its  original  germ. 
It  has  been  modified  by  the  influx  of  thought  from 
other  religions.  The  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  probably 
came  from  Platonism.  The  doctrine  of  sacrifices  from 
Judaism  and  heathenism.  The  wonderful  organiza- 
tion of  the  Eomish  Church  is  a  continuation  of  the 
old  Eoman  Empire  in  a  new  form.  Christianity  has 
been  adulterated  by  these  importations.  It  has  also 
been  greatly  diluted  by  compromises  with  worldly 
thought  and  worldly  habits.  On  the  other  hand,  it 
has  been  developed  by  the  spiritual  and  religious 
experiences  and  studies  of  sixty  generations  of  ear- 
nest believers.  But  through  all  its  changes  it  retains 
its  loyalty  to  the  person  and  character  of  Jesus ;  and 
this  is  its  salvation  and  its  distinctive  character. 

Now,  the  gospel,  as  it  lay  in  the  mind  of  Jesus, 
was  an  eminently  human  religion.  It  did  not  tram- 
ple on  man,  as  so  many  religions  have  done,  but  it 
respected  human  nature.  It  did  not  begin  by  curs- 
ing, but  by  blessing.     The  commencement  of  Christ's 


378  COMMON-SENSE  IN   RELIGION. 

first  sermon  consists  of  the  Beatitudes.  He  does  not 
begin  by  saying,  "  Cursed  are  the  proud,  cursed  are 
the  luxurious,  cursed  are  the  covetous,  cursed  are  the 
revengeful,  cursed  are  the  corrupt  in  heart,  cursed 
are  the  prosperous,"  but,  instead,  he  blessed  the 
"  poor  in  spirit,"  the  "  meek,"  the  "  sorrowful,"  the 
"  pure  in  heart,"  the  "  merciful."  He  did  not  put 
Total  Depravity  at  the  foundation  of  his  theol- 
ogy, but  human  capacity.  No  one  ever  trusted  in 
human  nature  as  much  as  Jesus;  no  one  ever  saw 
so  much  good  in  it  as  he.  'No  matter  how  poor 
and  mean  people  were,  he  always  spoke  to  them  as 
children  of  God.  Before  they  had  expressed  their 
penitence  or  sorrow  for  their  sins  he  told  them  their 
"sins  were  forgiven."  He  said,  "The  Son  of  man 
hath  power  on  earth  to  forgive  sins."  It  was  because 
he  was  the  Son  of  man ;  full  of  the  spirit  of  human- 
ity,—  capable  of  looking  into  the  heart  and  seeing 
its  profound  longing  for  something  better.  Where 
others  saw  only  degradation  and  shame,  he  saw 
promise  and  hope.  "Neither  do  I  condemn  thee; 
go,  and  sin  no  more."  He  saw  that  most  men  need 
to  be  encouraged,  not  to  be  rebuked  or  condemned ; 
and  so  he  said,  "  Come  unto  me,  ye  who  are  heavy 
laden,  and  I  will  give  you  rest." 

There  are  two  views  of  human  nature  which  have 


HOPE.  879  O^ 


prevailed,  and  prevail  still.  One  is  that  which  con- 
siders man  as  essentially  sinful  and  naturally  de- 
praved ;  the  other,  that  which  considers  sin  as  only 
the  result  of  ignorance,  and  needing  nothing  but 
knowledge  to  cure  it.  Both  of  these  views  are  par- 
tial, and  imply  a  defective  view  of  human  nature. 
To  regard  sin  as  natural  to  man  is  to  insult  the 
nature  God  gave  him,  and  to  deprive  him  of  hope 
and  self-respect.  On  the  other  hand,  to  consider  sin 
as  a  negative  quality,  being  merely  the  absence  of 
goodness,  does  not  accord  with  the  sense  of  remorse 
which  we  feel  in  view  of  our  transgressions.  Jesus 
took  neither  view  of  man.  He  said  it  was  better  to 
cut  off  the  right  hand,  and  pluck  out  the  right  eye, 
than  to  let  them  lead  us  into  that  hell  of  evil  whose 
worm  does  not  die  and  whose  fire  is  not  quenched. 
Yet  he  said,  "  The  spirit  is  willing,"  if  "  the  flesh  is 
weak."  He  said,  "  Those  who  hunger  and  thirst 
after  righteousness  shall  be  filled."  He  said,  "  Seek, 
and  ye  shall  find  "  ;  "  Come  unto  me,  and  I  will  give 
you  rest,"  —  implying  that  men  naturally  love  good- 
ness and  not  evil ;  and  also  that  men  have  the  power 
of  seeking  goodness,  coming  to  it,  and  choosing  it, 
and  so  of  finding  it  and  being  blessed  by  it. 

Jesus  saw  in  all  men  the  possibility  of  infinite 
progress ;  saw  in  every  man  an  immortal  soul  with 


380  COMMON-SENSE  IN   RELIGION. 

unbounded  capacities  for  knowledge,  love,  and  action. 
So,  to  him,  all  men  were  honorable.  No  matter  how 
low  and  mean  and  evil  they  might  be  now,  he  looked 
on  them  all  as  God's  children,  made  for  an  infinite 
development.  He  believed  in  the  capacities  of  the 
human  spirit,  and  said  it  was  better  to  lose  the  whole 
world  than  to  peril  one's  own  souL  This  profound 
view  which  he  took  of  the  value  of  man  has  been 
one  of  the  great  influences  to  promote  human  pro- 
gress. It  was  a  prophetic  hope,  born  out  of  a  deep 
insight  into  human  nature.  And  it  has  been  the 
seed  and  stimulus  at  once  of  human  civilization  and 
advancement. 

For,  before  we  can  have  any  progress,  we  must 
have  faith  in  the  possibility  of  progress ;  we  must 
believe  in  the  capacity  and  destiny  of  man.  This 
faith  Jesus  has  implanted  in  Christian  thought ;  he 
has  put  this  element  into  it.  We  cannot  look  on 
the  meanest  human  being  without  seeing  something 
more  than  his  meanness.  We  see  in  him  a  great 
loss,  a  mighty  disappointment.  We  see  that  he  is 
throwing  away  a  vast  opportunity.  We  look  below 
the  surface,  and  beneath  the  superficial  evil  we  find 
the  possibility  of  a  mighty  good.  Then,  the  severity 
of  censure,  the  .  sharpness  of  rebuke,  which  come 
from  Christian  pulpits  and  Christian  ethics,  is  itself 


HOPE.  381 


a  sign  of  the  worth  of  the  sinner.  We  should  not 
blame  bad  men  as  we  do  if  we  had  not  the  convic- 
tion that  they  might  have  done  so  much  better. 
Even  the  old-fashioned  idea  of  a  Day  of  Judgment, 
when  all  men  are  to  be  brought  together  in  one 
place,  and  all  their  conduct  investigated,  had  a  ten- 
dency to  elevate  our  conceptions  of  human  nature. 
Who  would  think  of  judging  a  flock  of  sheep  or  a 
race  of  tigers  for  their  sins  ?  To  be  capable  of  sin  is 
itself  a  sign  of  greatness.  No  creature  in  this  world, 
except  man,  can  commit  sin ;  for  only  man  has  con- 
science and  freedom,  the  sense  of  responsibility  and 
the  knowledge  of  eternal  law.  Deep-rooted  in  the 
consciousness  of  all  Christian  communities  is  this 
sense  of  a  great  responsibility  ;  and  it  is  an  element 
of  grandeur.  It  elevates  the  idea  of  man.  It  would 
be  a  bad  day  for  the  world  if  the  teachings  of  a 
materialistic  philosophy  should  persuade  us  that  man 
is  the  result  of  external  influences  only ;  that  his  soul 
is  the  product  of  a  little  carbon  and  a  little  oxygen ; 
that  his  bmin  secretes  thought  as  his  liver  secretes 
bile ;  and  that,  when  his  body  is  dissolved,  there  is 
no  possibility  of  his  surviving.  Even  the  coarse  and 
vulgar  notions  of  a  hell  of  fire  and  a  heaven  of  feast- 
ing and  song,  even  the  heaven  and  hell  of  John 
Calvin  or  Mohammed,  are  nobler  than  this  reduction 


382  COMMON-SENSE  IN   RELIGION. 

of  the  soul  to  earth  and  body.  I  had  rather  be- 
lieve —  as  Lord  Bacon  says  —  all  the  fables  of  the 
Talmud,  than  to  lose  my  faith  in  the  idea  that  man 
is  essentially  soul,  and  not  body. 

The  principle  of  human  progress  is  faith  in  the 
power  of  the  soul.  It  is  this  which  makes  the  dif- 
ference which  exists  between  stationary  Asia  and 
advancing  Europe.  Where  there  is  faith  in  the  ca- 
pacity of  the  soul  there  is  hope,  and  hope  is  the 
spring  of  progress.  We  are  expecting  new  devel- 
opments of  human  nature.  We  have  a  profound 
conviction  that  the  possibilities  of  man  are  exhaust- 
less.  Therefore  inventors  are  busy  with  their  discov- 
eries ;  therefore  science  is  investigating  the  universe 
to  find  new  laws ;  therefore  social  reformers  are  busy 
with  their  plans  for  renewing  society  and  curing  its 
evils;  therefore  philanthropists  meet  in  convention 
to  devise  methods  of  curing  vice,  reforming  crimi- 
nals, putting  a  stop  to  war,  preventing  pauperism, 
removing  disease  ;  therefore  missionaries  go  to  China, 
to  India,  to  l^ew  Zealand,  to  Greenland,  to  the  Feejee 
Islands,  to  inspire  a  Christian  faith  in  the  most  de- 
graded minds ;  therefore  in  politics  we  hope  on 
and  hope  ever,  seeking  to  teach  nations  self-govern- 
ment, and  to  replace  despotism  with  the  principles 
of  liberty.     Little  of  all  this  is  to  be  found  outside 


HOPE.  383 


of  Christendom;  there,  for  thousands  of  years,  men 
go  on  as  their  fathers  did  before  them,  hoping  noth- 
ing, and  therefore  changing  nothing;  sitting  still, 
like  the  Arabian  prince  in  the  story,  with  half  his 
body  marble ;  or  lying,  like  the  frozen  elephants  in 
the  Arctic  seas,  so  stiff  as  to  be  incapable  even  of 
further  change,  arrested  for  ten  thousand  years  just 
between  death  and  decay. 

What  makes  this  mighty  difference  between  Chris- 
tian countries  and  all  otliers,  except  the  hope  which 
Christ  has  inspired  in  the  human  heart,  —  the  sense 
of  the  greatness  of  the  soul  ?  Do  you  say  it  is  the 
progress  of  science  and  intellectual  activity  ?  Yes, 
doubtless;  but  why  does  that  prevail  in  Christen- 
dom, and  nowhere  else  ?  Why  do  we  not  go  to 
Turkey  and  Arabia  for  our  science  ?  Why  not  ask 
the  Brahmans  for  our  art  ?  Why  not  turn  to  the 
Buddhists  for  our  inventions  ?  There  is  something 
deeper  behind  all  the  science,  art,  literature,  inven- 
tion of  Christendom,  —  some  motive-power  back  of 
it  all.  We  can  communicate  to  ethnic  nations  the 
externals  of  our  civilization,  but  not  its  soul.  We 
can  teach'  the  Chinese  how  to  make  a  railroad, 
the  Turks  how  to  run  steamboats,  and  to  wear  hats 
instead  of  turbans ;  but  we  cannot  communicate  to 
them  the  spirit  of  invention  and  progTess,  unless  we 
can  give  to  them  Christianity  itself. 


384  COMMON-SENSE   IN   RELIGION. 

I  go  into  a  gi-eat  manufacturing  establisiiment.  I 
see  carding-macliines  at  work,  spindles  whirling, 
looms  clashing,  machinery  in  motion  in  every  room. 
If  I  am  satisfied  with  this,  and  look  no  farther,  I 
am  like  those  who  say  that  science  and  intellectual 
activity  are  the  cause  of  Christian  civilization.  But 
if  1  look  farther,  for  the  source  of  all  this  movement, 
I  am  taken  into  a  room  below,  where  a  mighty  en- 
gine is  at  work.  The  steam-power  in  the  boilers  is 
driving  the  piston,  ten-feet  stroke,  whose  steady  noise- 
less movement  turns  the  great  fly-wheel,  twenty  tons 
in  weight,  and  communicates  the  power  which  sets  in 
motion  the  machinery  in  every  part  of  the  building. 
So,  behind  all  the  movement  and  activity  of  Chris- 
tian lands  is  the  great  motive-power  which  sustains 
it  all,  —  faith  in  human  nature,  inspired  by  Christ, 
producing  a  boundless  hope,  a  perpetual  expecta- 
tion, a  sense  of  possibilities  of  progress  unexhausted 
and  inexhaustible. 

So,  too,  our  hope  for  ourselves  has  its  root  in 
Christ's  hope  concerning  ils.  The  hope  of  Jesus  for 
man  was  not  vague  and  general,  but  personal  and 
specific.  He  spoke  with  confidence  to  individuals. 
He  said  to  the  sinful  woman,  "  Go,  and  sin  no  more," 
as  though  sure  that  she  could  do  it.  He  said  to  an- 
other, "  Be  of  good  cheer ;  thy  sins  are  forgiven  thee," 


HOPE.  336 


inspiring  him  with  confidence  that  the  power  of  sin 
over  him  was  destroyed.  Jesus  had  infinitely  more 
hope  for  others  than  they  had  for  themselves.  But 
it  was  not  a  blind  confidence;  he  ^aw  their  defects 
and  faults  very  plainly. 

The  few  records  that  we  possess  of  the  personal 
intercourse  of  Jesus  with  those  around  him  show 
great  insight  into  character.  He  seemed  to  under- 
stand every  one,  —  John  the  Baptist,  Peter,  Thomas, 
Nicodemus,  Pilate,  Paul,  the  Pharisees,  Judas,  —  and 
the  peculiarity  of  his  judgment  of  them  was  its 
liberality.  He  was  only  harsh  toward  the  Phari- 
sees, and  his  harshness  to  them  consisted  simply  in 
describing  them  as  they  were.  He  uttered  no  vague 
or  general  denunciations,  but  brought  specific 
charges  against  them.  He  spoke  of  their  pomp  and 
pride,  their  oppression  of  the  poor,  their  substitution 
of  ceremonies  and  ritual  for  love  to  God  and  man ; 
and  it  was  necessary  to  do  this,  for  their  influence 
was  corrupting  the  character  of  the  people.  Their 
type  of  religion  was  the  popular  and  prevailing  one, 
and  it  needed  to  be  exposed  and  resisted.  He  came, 
like  the  Day  of  Judgment,  to  reveal  to  the  proud, 
self-satisfied,  and  powerful  their  faults  and  sins,  but 
also  to  comfort  and  uplift  the  poor  and  humble  sin- 
ners, who  had  no  confidence  in  themselves.  He  saw 
17  ir 


386  COMMON-SENSE  IN  RELIGION. 

all  the  weakness  of  Peter.  He  told  him  he  would 
deny  him  thrice ;  but  he  also  said,  "  When  thou  art 
converted,  strengthen  thy  brethren."  He  did  not 
excommunicate  Thomas  because  he  denied  the  res- 
urrection, but  gave  him  the  physical  evidence  which 
he  demanded.  Thomas  was  a  positive  philosopher, 
who  could  only  believe  on  the  evidence  of  his  senses ; 
and  Jesus  met  his  case.  Nicodemus  was  afraid  to 
compromise  his  position  by  coming  in  the  day,  so 
Jesus  let  him  come  in  the  night.  Impatient  John 
the  Baptist  sent  a  rude  message  to  Jesus,  asking  if 
he  was  going  to  be  the  Messiah,  or  whether  they 
should  have  to  look  for  another.  He  excused  this 
rudeness,  and  said  John  was  not  a  reed  shaken  by 
the  wind,  nor  a  man  clothed  in  soft  raiment;  but, 
though  not  polite,  he  was  a  great  prophet,  and  had 
done  a  great  work. 

It  is  this  trust  in  human  nature  which  Jesus  felt 
which  gives  us  faith  in  ourselves.  We  all  know  so 
weU  our  own  weakness  and  folly  and  sin ;  we  know 
so  well  how  we  fail  in  keeping  our  resolutions,  how 
often  we  are  false  and  mean,  how  often  we  are  hard 
and  cold,  how  often  we  are  too  indolent  to  fulfil  our 
duties,  too  selfish  to  care  for  others,  —  we  know  this 
so  well  that  we  should  despair  of  ever  being  any  bet- 
ter, were  it  not  that  Jesus  Christ  has  such  a  hope  for 


HOPE.  387 


man  that  it  inspires  us  all  with  hope  for  ourselves. 
This  is  the  motive  back  of  all  other  motives  in  our 
soul.  Into  this  Christian  faith  we  are  bom.  "We 
grow  up  into  it  unconsciously.  "We  are  moved  by  it 
without  our  own  knowledge.  Long  before  we  come 
into  any  living  personal  communion  with  Christ  as 
our  Master  and  Saviour  we  are  inspired  by  this,  his 
all-pervading  hope  for  man.  The  usual  theological 
way  of  expressing  this  is  to  say  that  "Christ  died 
for  us,"  and  that  every  soul  has  value  because 
"Christ  died  for  it."  The  meaning  is,  that  Christ 
had  a  profound  conviction  that  every  soul  was  of 
priceless  value  in  the  eyes  of  God,  and  that  every 
soul  was  made  for  an  infinite  progress,  and  there- 
fore he  was  willing  to  give  himseK  wholly,  and  to 
die,  in  order  that  men  might  be  brought  to  God. 

It  is  this  same  faith  in  the  value  of  the  soul 
which  is  a  chief  proof  of  immortality. 

You  have,  let  us  suppose,  among  your  other  pos- 
sessions, some  jewels  of  great  value.  One  is  a  dia- 
mond, an  extremely  brilliant  and  beautiful  stone ; 
another  is  a  ruby  of  a  deep,  rich  crimson  color ;  an- 
other is  a  sapphire,  blue  as  the  sky ;  another,  a  lovely 
emerald  with  deep,  rich  green.  You  have  been 
obliged  suddenly  to  move,  and  have  destroyed, 
thrown  away,  left  behind   you,  some   of  your  pos- 


388  COMMON-SENSE  IN    RELIGION. 

sessioos  wMch  were  of  little  value.  How  do  I 
know  I  that  you  did  not  throw  away  your  jewels  too  ? 
I  do  not  know  it.  I  have  not  seen  you  to  ask  the 
question.  But  I  do  not  believe  that  you  have  done 
so,  because  I  know  how  you  prized  them.  How  do 
1  know  that  Grod  does  not  throw  away  our  souls 
.when  we  die, —  at  the  end  of  five  years,  twenty 
years,  seventy  years  ?  I  do  not  know  it.  I  cannot 
see  the  souls  of  my  friends  after  their  death.  But  I 
do  not  believe  he  has  done  so,  because  I  know  how 
much  he  values  the  soul.  Jesus  has  convinced  me 
that  God,  his  Father  and  ours,  looks  on  us  as  his 
children,  has  made  us  for  immortal  progress,  has  en- 
dowed us  with  capacities  which  only  begin  to  be 
unfolded  in  this  world,  loves  us  more  than  we  love 
our  own  children.  If  we  believe  this,  death  is  abol- 
ished. We  have  no  fear  that  God  will  throw  our 
souls  away  when  we  die.  If  we  so  mouyn  the  loss 
of  our  children  and  those  we  love,  and  cannot  bear 
to  let  them  go,  even  when  we  expect  to  meet  them 
Bgain,  will  God  create  our  souls  merely  to  destroy 
them  .again  at  the  end  of  a  few  years  ?  It  is  impos- 
sible. No  one  who  looks  at  man  with  the  eyes  of 
Jesus  can  believe  it  for  a  moment.  If  we  regard 
man  as  only  a  bodily  machine,  we  niay  believe  it; 
not  if  we  see  in  him  a  soul  made  by  God  in  his 


HOPE.  389 

own  image,  and  endowed  with  incalculable  powers 
of  thought,  love,  aspiration,  improvement. 

That  which  has  given  power  to  Christianity  and 
has  made  it  the  religion  of  the  civilized  world,  which 
has  caused  it  to  grow  with  the  growth  of  humanity, 
and  strengthen  with  its  strength,  is,  in  my  opinion, 
this,  —  that  it  is  based  on  faith  in  man.  It  is  not 
founded  in  doubt.  It  is  full  of  hope,  not  fear,  con- 
cerning human  progress  in  this  life  and  the  life  to 
come.  It  is  an  encouraging  religion.  It  invites  us 
to  trust  in  God  as  our  Father,  in  man  as  our  brother, 
in  ourselves  as  made  for  progress  and  perfection.  It 
may  not  seem,  at  first,  as  wise  in  this  as  those 
systems  which  consider  man  as  no  better  than 
a  mass  of  depravity,  or  a  machine  moved  by 
appetite  and  desire.  But  in  the  long  run  it  takes 
possession  of  the  world;  it  fills  human  life  with 
sweetness,  and  purifies  the  soul  from  evil;  it  com- 
forts the  sorrowful ;  it  supports  the  weak ;  it  speaks 
peace  to  the  dying,  and  illuminates  the  darkness  of 
the  grave  with  an  immortal  light.  Did  Jesus  know 
what  was  in  man,  then,  or  did  he  not  ?  j 


XVIII. 

THE  PATIENCE  OF   HOPE, 


xvni 

THE  PATIENCE  OF  HOPE. 

Patience  is  a  virtue  much  commended.  But, 
if  it  were  what  it  is  often  thought,  I  doubt  if  it 
should  be  so  much  praised  and  so  greatly  rec- 
ommended. When  you  hear  of  a  very  patient 
person,  do  you  not  often  think  of  him  as  passively 
enduring,  without  complaint,  persecution,  wrong,  and 
evil  ?  That  is  the  ideal  saint,  who  has  come  down  to 
us  from  the  Middle  Ages.  The  theory  then  was  that 
Christianity  consisted  in  suffering  meekly  all  evil 
The  saints  were  holy  men  who  made  a  merit  of  suf- 
fering, and  were  particularly  glad  when  they  were 
abused  and  wronged,  because  this  gave  them  the 
merit  of  martyrdom.  Their  pictures  represent  them 
as  emaciated,  weak,  and  with  heads  bowed  like  a 
bulrush.  The  object  of  Christianity,  it  was  thought, 
was  to  make  such  characters  as  that,  —  without  any 
power  or  wish  to  resist  injury.  They  had  no  wish  nor 
power  to  put  down  villany  and  rascality.  They  were 
too  weak  to  contradict  falsehood.  That  was  the  ideal 
of  patience  which  has  come  down  to  us  as  the  qual- 
ity recommended  in  the  Bible. 
17* 


394  COMMON-SENSE  IN  RELIGION. 

But  if  this  be  patience,  then,  it  seems  to  me, 
patience  would  do  more  harm  than  good  in  the  world. 
It  is  easy  to  be  too  patient,  in  this  sense.  To  be 
dumb  before  outrage,  as  a  sheep  before  its  shearers, 
may  be  right  sometimes.  When  resistance  can  do 
no  good,  when  we  have  uttered  our  protest  and  it 
is  ineffectual,  then  it  is  often  more  dignified  to  bear 
evil  in  silence.  Then  our  silence  is  perhaps  the 
loudest  protest.  Jesus  was  patient,  in  this  way,  be- 
fore the  Jewish  Sanhedrim,  and  his  silence  troubled 
them  more  than  if  he  had  spoken.  "  Why  do  not  you 
answer  ? "  said  the  high-priest ;  "  do  not  you  hear 
what  these  men  accuse  you  of  ? "  Still  he  stood 
silent.  Imagine  the  scene.  All  his  enemies  are 
around  him;  he  is  helpless  in  their  midst.  They 
bring  witnesses  to  prove  him  guilty  of  death.  He 
hears  all  the  charges,  and  makes  no  reply.  His  mind 
is  far  away.  His  work  is  done.  He  sees  not  the 
haggard,  stern  faces  of  his  enemies,  not  the  base 
looks  of  the  witnesses.  He  sees,  perhaps,  his  own 
Galilean  lake,  sleeping  in  its  beauty  among  the  hills ; 
he  sees  the  scenes  of  his  childhood,  where  he  first 
met  God  in  the  solitude  and  serenity  of  nature. 
He  sees  the  place  where  he  knew  first  the  gxeatness 
of  his  mission.  He  sees  the  green  summit  of 
Mt.  Tabor,  where  he  talked  with  Moses  and  Elijah 


THE  PATIENCE   OF   HOPE.  395 

t- . 

of  the  work  he  was  to  do ;  the  only  hour  of  his  life 
when  he  met  human  beings  who  could  comprehend 
him.  Calm,  strong,  indifferent  to  what  was  passing 
around  him,  he  stood  in  the  silence  of  his  own 
thoughts.  What  they  choose  to  accuse  him  of,  how 
they  meant  to  bring  him  to  his  cross,  was  nothing  to 
liim  now.  He  had  passed  beyond  all  that,  and  so  he 
was  silent.  "  As  a  sheep  before  its  shearers  is  dumb, 
so  he  opened  not  his  mouth."  But  ev^en  that  silence 
was  not  the  passive,  meek,  unresisting  patience  which 
we  commonly  attribute  to  Jesus.  It  was  the  golden 
silence  which  speaks  louder  than  words.  It  told 
them  that  he  knew  that  his  fate  was  already  sealed, 
and  that  they  had  already  determined  that  he  should 
die.  "  Wliy  go  through  the  form  of  a  defence  ?  Let 
us  finish  at  once,  since  you  have  all  determined  on  my 
death.     This  is  nothing  to  me ;  this  is  your  affair." 

But  Jesus  had  not  this  passive,  unresisting 
patience  at  other  times.  •  He  opposed  the  Scribes 
and  Pharisees  with  the  keenest  severity  of  indignant 
rebuke.  He  exposed  them  to  the  people ;  he  threw 
a  beam  of  sunlight  into  their  conduct  and  character. 
He  told  the  people  how  selfish  their  leaders  were, 
how  cruel,  how  false  to  their  own  teachings ;  how 
they  lived  to  gratify  their  vanity ;  how  they  turned 
the  most  sacred  ofi&ces  of  religion  into  a  show.    Jesus 


B96  COMMON-SEN^E  IN   RELIGION. 

had  rio  patience  with  hypocrisy.  He  could  be  verj 
patient  with  the  failings  of  the  weak ;  he  could  for- 
give the  sins  of  those  who  fell  under  the  influence 
of  too  strong  temptation ;  but  he  was  by  iio  ineans 
patient  with  the  oppression  of  the  powerful,  th6 
luxury  of  the  affluent,  the  hypocrisy  of  the  religious 
leaders. 

It  is  not  well  to  be  too  patient  with  things  like 
these.  Our  work  here  is  to  fight ;  we  are  all  soldiers 
of  the  cross.  We  are  riot,  here  tb  compromise,  to  con- 
cede, to  submit  to  evil,  but  to  resist  it.  We  are  to 
resist  it  with  the  sword  of  truth ;  not  angrily,  not  bit- 
terly, not  resentfully,  but  with  detetmination.  It  is 
no  easy  thing  to  live  in  this  world  and  do  one's  duty. 
Evil  fashion  is  so  strong,  custdm  is  so  despotic,  that 
it  is  sometimes  necessary  to  oppose  them  very  ac- 
tively. 

True  patienc^  is  not  passive,  biit  active.  It  is 
holding  on.  It  is  to  be  not  weary  in  well-doingj 
though  there  seems  to  be  no  success.  It  is  not  to 
draw  back,  or  give  up,  but  to  i)ersevere,  whether  meii 
hear  or  whether  they  forbear.  It  is  —  to  use  an  old 
word  and  a  good  one,  though  somewhat  passed  by  — 
longanimity,  which  is  the  sister  of  magnanimity. 
Magnanimity  is  greatness  of  soul,  which  aims  at  vast 
and  noblfe  ends,  rising  above  all   things  base  and 


THE  PATIENCE   OF   HOPE.  397 

mean.  Longanifnity  is  the  persevering  purpose  which 
keeps  to  its  idea  without  rest  and  without  haste ;  not 
making  a  paiuse  nor  leaving  a  void.  The  purpose  is  so 
strong  that  it  is  not  disttirbed  by  difficulty,  nor  ter- 
rified by  danger,  nor  chilled  by  neglect.  It  holds  on. 
That  is  the  meaning  of  patience  in  Scripture. 

Job  is  called  a  patient  man  in  this  true  sense ;  he 
certainly  was  not  very  patient  in  th6  popular  sense 
of  the  word.  He  complained  bitterly  sometimes  of 
his  sufferings ;  he  could  not  Sfee  why  he  was  called  to 
bear  so  much.  He  could  not  understand  the  justice 
of  his  being  punished.  Both  he  and  his  friends 
thought  his  trials  a  punishment.  They  said,  "  Since 
you  are  punished  so  severely,  yon  must  be  a  great 
sinner.  Now  confess  it."  He  said,  "  I  know  I  am 
not  a  great  sinner ;  then  why  am  I  punished  so  se- 
verely ?  I  will  not  say  I  am  a  sinner  till  I  see  how 
I  am  one.  I  will  not  lie  to  please  God.  I  will  hold 
fast  my  integrity,  and  not  let  it  go ;  it  is  all  I  have 
left."  Jpb  cursed  the  day  of  his  birth ;  he  described 
his  misfery  ih  language  whose  gloomy  pathos  makes 
all  dther  tragedy  pale.  Then  how  was  he  patient  ? 
He  was  patient  in  this  Sense,  that  he  held  on  ;  he  did 
not  give  up.  He  did  not  yield  to  evil,  nor  lose  his 
courage  nor  his  sense  of  right.  He  did  not  make 
any  weak  concession,  as  his  friends  advised.     He  did 


398  COMMON-SENSE   IN  RELIGION. 

not  tell  lies  to  please  God.  Bereft  of  all,  lonely, 
wretched,  his  unconquerable  mind  remained  unshak- 
en. He  stands,  in  the  Hebrew  story,  like  Prome- 
theus in  the  Greek  mythology.  Prometheus,  pun- 
ished for  the  godlike  crime  of  being  kind  to  men,  and 
for  bestowing  on  them  the  sacred  gift  of  fire,  was 
chained  to  a  rock  on  the  frozen  Caucasus,  and  tor- 
mented day  and  night  by  the  orders  of  Jupiter.  But 
he  refused  to  obey  unjust  commands,  and  defied  evil 
from  his  throne  of  suffering.  So  Prometheus  and 
Job  stand,  grand  forms  of  endurance  and  fortitude, 
age  after  age,  unconquerable,  indestructible.  So  the 
awful  mind  of  Cato  stood  alone,  resisting  the  advance 
of  tyranny  amid  the  downfall  of  Eoman  freedom. 

So,  in  history,  stand  out  the  grand  forms  of  the 
martyrs  for  truth  and  right.  Joan  of  Arc,  going 
up  in  her  chariot  of  flame ;  Savonarola,  the  heroic 
prophet  and  reformer  before  Luther;  Huss,  teacher 
of  truth.  These  are  they,  who,  being  lifted  up, 
draw  all  men  unto  them.  Their  heroic  endurance 
in  the  cause  of  truth  and  right  exalts  them  as 
solemn  heralds  of  a  better  age  to  come.  They 
stand  like  the  castled  crag  of  Drachenfels,  despoiled 
and  shattered,  but  more  noble  in  its  ruin  than  in 
its  prime;  beat  upon  by  the  storms  of  ages,  but 
looking    down  in    its    indestructible   majesty   over 


THE  PATIENCE   OF  HOPE.  399 

wide  and  winding  valleys  of  modern  peace  and 
comfort  below.  And  among  these  types  of  heroic 
patience  shall  also  stand  our  country's  martyr, 
Abraham  Lincoln,  with  the  sad  strength  in  his 
eyes,  and  the  patience  of  hope  in  his  heart. 

True  patience  is  the  power  of  enduring  calmly, 
quietly,  without  passion  or  excitement,  a  host  of 
difficulties  and  trials,  because  inwardly  sustained 
by  a  strong  purpose,  a  gTeat  aim,  a  noble  hope. 
The  inventor,  who  is  working  out  his  idea,  is  pa- 
tient with  poverty,  ridicule,  repeated  failure,  sus- 
tained by  the  sure  hope  of  ultimate  success.  This 
is  what  is  meant  by  the  patience  of  hope.  If  you 
wish  to  be  patient,  you  must  possess  your  soul  by 
means  of  some  great  expectation.  We  can  bear  a 
great  deal  so  long  as  we  have  hope.  The  boy 
who  is  going  to  fish  in  the  brook  for  trout  does 
not  mind  the  flies  and  mosquitoes  so  long  as  he 
has  hope  of  catching  fish.  But  if  he  has  bad  luck 
in  fishing,  then  the  mosquitoes  become  intolerable. 
There  are  swarms  of  mosquitoes  about  us  all  in 
our  daily  life ;  little  annoyances,  little  perplexities, 
little  aggravations  of  all  sorts.  The  man  who  goes 
to  his  place  of  business  has  his  mosquitoes  there. 
Things  go  wrong.  He  is  vexed  by  the  blunders  of 
those  with  whom  he  has  to  deal.     He  is  vexed  with 


400  COMMON-SENSE  IN   RELIGION. 

the  little  deceptions,  knaveries,  rascalities,  of  busi- 
ness. He  is  vexed  with  his  own  stupidity  a,nd  his 
own  blunders.  He  comes  home  at  night  irritable, 
impatient,  and  shows  it.  He  does  not  reflect  that 
his  wife  has  had  her  little  swarm  of  mosquitoes 
around  her  also  all  day.  Things  have  not  gone  well 
with  her.  The  kitchen  machinery  has  got  out  of 
order;  work  has  been  delayed;  the  mechanics  who 
agreed  to  come  to  mend  the  range  did  not  come ; 
the  water-pipes  are  out  of  sorts ;  the  washing  has 
to  be  put  off;  th«  children  have  come  from  school 
out  of  humor,  they  have  had  their  mosquitoes  too.. 
At  last,  after  a  long  and  hard  day,  she  has  contrived 
to  smooth  the  raven  down  of  all  these  difficulties  till 
they  smiled.  The  children  have  had  their  supper, 
and  have  gone  happily  to  bed.  She  has  been  kept 
up  by  the  hope  of  having  a  pleasant  Evening  with 
her  husband.  But  he  comes  home  cross  as  —  well, 
I  do  not  know  exactly  how  cross  a  bear  is,  but  we 
will  say  that  he  comes  home  prepared  to  indulge^ 
in  the  bosom  of  bis  family,  that  ill-humor  which  ha 
has  been  obliged  to  repress  during  the  day.  Now, 
if  he  also  had  been  hoping  to  have  a  quiet,  pleasant 
evening  with  his  wife,  both  would  be  rested,  and  the 
mosquitoes  driven  away  until  to-morrow. 

I  do  not  wish  to  be  too  severe  on  the  Inen ;  so,  if 


THE  PATIENCE  OF  HOPE.  401 

you  please,  you  may  reverse  the  picture.  It  is  the 
huisband  who  comes  home  hoping  to  have  a  nice  quiet 
time  with  his  family,  and  is  met  at  the  door  by  an- 
other swarm  of  mosquitoes  in  the  form  of  querulous 
complaints,  fault-finding,  lamentatiotis,  and  tears. 

True  patience  is  born  of  hope.  Even  the  hope  of 
some  very  little  pleasure  or  comfort  near  by  eU- 
ables  us  to  bear  a  great  many  vexations.  Every  one 
should  have  some  enjoyments  to  look  forward  to, 
something  pleasant  to  do,  some  pleasant  people  to 
meet,  a  good  book  kept  to  read  in  a  quiet  hour. 
Self-denial  preserves  hope.  It  is  better  to  work 
hard,  looking  forward  to  some  future  enjoyment  or 
satisfaction,  than  to  exhaust  the  pleasure  before  we 
have  earned  the  right  to  that  relaxation.  The  two 
extremes  of  the  social  scale  are  almost  equally  with- 
out hope.  One  is  hopeless  because  pressed  down  so 
low  by  Want  and  hardship  that  hope  never  comes. 
The  other  is  hopeless  because,  possessing  everything 
and  exhausting  everything,  all  hope  has  gone,  and 
there  is  nothing  left  to  hope  for.  Both,  therefore; 
become  impatient,  irritable,  fretful,  —  those  who  have 
too  little,  and  those  who  have  too  much.  Both  espe- 
cially need  the  greater  hopes  of  Christianity  to  cure 
this  disease  of  impatience.  They  need  to  hope  for 
others,  to  hope  for  social  itnprovement ;  to  put  their 


402  COMMON-SENSE  IN  RELIGION. 

heart  into  larger  expectations  outside  of  themselves ; 
to  take  an  interest  in  the  progress  of  humanity,  the 
triumph  of  truth,  the  advance  of  social  reform,  the 
coming  of  Christ  in  this  life,  the  expectation  of  meet- 
ing him  in  another. 

The  gospel  of  Christ  can  inspire  a  perfect  pa- 
tience by  awakening  an  unconquerable,  undying 
hope.  The  patience  of  hope  is  not  passive,  but 
active;  full  of  life,  enthusiasm,  and  energy.  There 
is  more  genuine  patience  displayed  "by  a  modern  re- 
former who  pursues  his  end  unflinchingly  through 
good  report  and  evil  report,  than  by  the  ancient 
anchorite  who  buried  himself  in  a  cave,  and  thought 
godliness  consisted  in  being  hungry,  lazy,  cold,  and 
dirty. 

During  our  civil  war  we  had  examples  of  both 
kinds  of  patience,  —  the  passive,  enduring  patience, 
and  the  active,  working  patience.  The  colored  peo- 
ple of  the  South  could  do  nothing  but  wait  till 
their  deliverance  came.  And  so  they  waited,  waited, 
waited,  firm  in  their  faith  that  the  day  of  salvation 
would  come.  How  well  they  waited!  How  they 
wasted  no  strength  in  unavailing  insurrection,  com- 
mitted no  crimes  in  their  anger,  gave  no  occasion  of 
triumph  to  their  enemies,  we  all  know.  This  is  one 
of  the  illustrations  in  liistory  of  the  patience  which 


THE  PATIENCE   OF  HOPE.  403 

watches,  and  waits,  and  bears  long,  and  never  faints 
or  gives  way. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  Northern  people  showed 
the  highest  example  of  patience  of  another  kind. 
They  bore  the  most  cruel  disappointments,  the  most 
terrible  disasters,  with  firm,  determined  minds. 
They  never  gave  way,  never  lost  hope,  never  shrank 
from  any  sacrifice.  They  had  laid  on  the  altar  of 
their  country  life,  fortune,  and  sacred  honor;  and 
nobly  did  they  redeem  every  pledge.  They  pos- 
sessed their  souls  in  a  patience  of  the  highest  kind. 
Through  four  long,  stormy  years,  in  which  hardly  a 
gleam  of  light  shone,  they  went  steadily  on.  The 
Scripture  says  "the  just  shall  live  by  faith,"  and 
"  we  are  saved  by  hope."  This  nation  lived  by  faith 
during  the  long  rebellion,  —  by  faith  in  God,  who 
would  surely  maintain  the  right,  who  could  not 
suffer  evil  to  triumph  over  good.  They  lived  by 
faith  in  the  ideas  of  the  Union,  —  Liberty,  Equality, 
and  Fraternity ;  by  faith  in  themselves  and  their 
cause.  They  lived  by  faith,  and  they  were  saved  by 
hope.  Their  hope  grew  stronger  from  day  to  day; 
they  became  ever  more  sure  of  victory.  For,  as  hope 
produces  patience,  so  also  does  patience  increase 
hope.  The  Scripture  not  only  speaks  of  the  patience 
of  hope,  but  also  declares  that  "  patience  works  ex- 


404  COMMON-SENSE  IN  RELIGION. 

perience,  and  experience  hope."  When  the  war 
began,  we  doubted  whether  the  nation  was  really 
patriotic  enough  to  encounter  its  dangers  and  losses. 
But  as  it  went  on  we  found  by  experience  the  im^ 
mense  strength,  tenacity,  endurance,  of  the  populai* 
heart,  and  so  experience  worked  hope,  and  by  that 
hope  we  were  saved. 

Thus  we  see  that  true  patience  is  not  a  weak  and 
purely  passive  virtuej  but  springs  out  of  manly  pur- 
pose, noble  aims,  living  convictions,  and  generous 
hopes.  God  is  patient  with  us  all,  patient  wit^  our 
follies  and  sins,  patient  and  long-suffering,  because  he 
looks  forward  to  the  end  when  all  evil  shall  cease,  all 
tears  be  wiped  away,  and  man  rise  into  the  image  of 
himself.  We  grow  impatient  at  the  slow  progress  of 
affairs,  the  evils  of  society,  the  obstinacy  of  vice, 
the  misery  and  want  and  woe  of  the  world.  We 
cry,  "How  l©ng.  Lord!  how  long!"  Christianity  is 
like  the  leaven  hidden  in  three  measures  of  meal; 
we  do  not  see  it  at  work,  and  so  we  doubt  its  power. 
It  is  like  the  seed  hidden  in  the  ground ;  it  springs 
and  grows  we  know  not  how.  We  are  impatient 
and  discouraged.  But  with  God  one  day  is  as  a 
thousand  years,  and  a  thousand  years  as  one  day. 
He  has  plenty  of  time,  and  can  afford  to  wait.  He 
does  not  hurry  anything.     He  allows  us  to  take  our 


THE   PATIENCE   OF   HOPE.  405 

own  time  in  learning  to  do  right.  Meantime  he 
sends  his  sun  and  his  rain  on  the  evil  and  on  the 
good.  He  makes  us  all  as  happy  as  we  are  able  to  be. 
He  sends  fresh  joy  into  the  world  in  the  hearts  of 
little  children,  full  of  natural  hope  and  glad  interest 
in  existence.  He  meets  us  with  his  forgiving  love 
when  we  tire  of  our  sin  and  long  for  redemption. 
He  opens  to  us  a  heaven  here,  and  another  heaven 
hereafter,  on  condition  only  that  we  shall  be  willing 
to  go  into  it  by  the  open  door  of  faith,  love,  and 
obedience.  If  we  are  not  willing  to  go  in,  he  waits 
till  we  are ;  till  we  have  exhausted  our  selfishness, 
our  wilfulness,  our  falsehood,  and  find  them  all  bitter 
and  miserable. 

In  your  patience  possess  your  souls  !  Patience 
is  not  giving  up,  or  yielding;  it  is  self-possession. 
Patience  does  not  come  from  weakness,  but  from 
strength.  It  is  the  ripe  fruit  of  a  noble  aim,  a  pro- 
found hope,  a  generous  activity. 


XIX. 

lOVE 


XIX. 

LOVE. 

We  often  say  that  the  essence  of  Christianity 
is  love  to  God  and  love  to  man.  Only  love  God 
with  all  your  heart,  and  your  neighbor  as  yourself, 
and  you  have  the  substance  of  the  gospel  We  say 
this  as  if  it  were  something  very  easy  to  do,  as 
though  it  made  religion  very  simple  and  very  prac- 
ticable. It  makes  it  simple,  perhaps,  but  does  it 
make  it  practicable  ?  We  know  a  little  how  we  can 
love  man ;  but  do  we  find  that  very  easy  ?  Is  it 
easy  to  be  generous,  unselfish,  kind  to  the  imthank- 
ful,  loving  to  enemies  ?  It  is  not  easy  to  love  man 
in  any  very  high  and  large  sense. 

But  how  are  we  to  love  God  ?  How  love  an  un- 
seen being,  if  he  comes  to  us  only  through  the  laws 
of  nature  and  providence ;  so  far  away,  so  high 
above  us ;  an  infinite  being,  and  therefore  infinitely 
remote  from  all  our  finite  sympathies  ? 

Jesus  declared  love  to  God  and  love  to  man  to 
be  the  two  great  commandments  on  which  hang 
aU  the  Law  and  the   Prophets.     This   shows   that, 

18 


410  COMMON-SENSE   IN   RELIGION. 

in  his  religion,  love  sums  up  everything.  It  is  faith 
and  obedience;  it  contains  all  religion  and  all  mo- 
rality; if  we  have  this,  we  have  all. 

Moreover,  this  saying  of  Jesus  shows  that  it  is 
something  for  all  to  have,  something  that  all  should 
struggle  for  and  possess,  the  one  thing  needful.  We 
may  dispense  with  everything  else,  but  not  with 
love.  It  is  not  for  saints  only,  for  particularly 
good  people;  it  is  for  sinners  too.  We  are  not  all 
expected  to  become  eminent  saints,  any  more  than 
all  stars  are  expected  to  be  as  bright  as  Sirius.  There 
are  degrees  of  glory  in  the  heavenly  world.  But  no 
one  can  have  life  in  him  who  has  not  some  love  in 
him.  Pure  selfishness  would  be  equivalent  to  anni- 
hilation ;  and  the  selfish  man  is  going  down  to  death 
all  the  time. 

We  see  this  in  the  case  of  human  love.  People 
can  forgive  everything  else  in  a  man  but  a  hard 
heart ;  they  can  forgive  everything  for  the  sake  of 
a  kind  heart.  A  man  may  cheat,  lie,  steal,  and  mur- 
der; but  if  he  seems  to  be  generous,  if  he  will 
only  perform  some  striking  act  of  charity,  men  will 
consider  that  a  sort  of  atonement  for  his  sins.  In 
novels,  and  on  the  stage,  the  villain  is  always  a  cold- 
blooded, hardrhearted  fellow,  and  no  one  pities  him 
when   his   fate   overtakes    him.     But    the   careless, 


LOVE.  411 


reckless,  impulsive  sinner,  who  has  some  love  for 
others  left  in  his  soul,  is  always  saved  at  last,  to  the 
great  satisfaction  of  the  readers  and  the  audience. 
All  this  is  a  great  mistake ;  but  it  points  toward  a 
truth,  —  that  one  of  the  worst  sins,  in  human  esti- 
mation, is  a  perfectly  selfish  life. 

Again,  in  the  New  Testament,  love  to  man  and 
to  God  are  assumed  to  be  identical.  He  who  loves 
God  aright  must  love  man;  he  who  has  any  true 
love  for  man  must  love  God  too.  The  Apostle  Paul 
does  not  distinguish  between  the  two  kinds  of  love ; 
he  considers  them  the  same.  "  Love,"  he  says,  "  is 
the  fulfilling  of  the.  law  "  ;  "  Love  suffereth  long  and 
is  kind.  Love  vaunteth  not  itself"  So  the  Apostle 
John  speaks  of  love  in  general  as  of  one  quality, 
no  matter  in  what  direction  exerted,  —  toward  man 
in  the  form  of  humanity,  toward  God  in  the  form 
of  piety.  "He  who  dwelleth  in  love,  dwelleth  in 
God."  Jesus  indicates  the  same  identity  in  the 
essence  of  humanity  and  piety,  when  he  says  the 
first  command  is.  Love  God ;  and  the  second  is  like 
it,  that  is,  of  the  same  nature,  the  same  kind  of 
thing,  —  to  love  your  neighbor. 

But  what  is  love  ?  Much  that  passes  for  it  does 
not  deserve  the  name.  In  recent  discussions  about 
marriage  and  divorce  it  has  been  continually  asserted 


412  COMMON-SENSE  IN   RELIGION. 

that  the  essence  of  marriage  is  love ;  that  when  a 
man  and  woman  love  each  other,  this  is  the  essence 
of  marriage,  therefore  it  follows  that  if  they  cease 
to  love  each  other  their  marriage  is  at  an  end.  This 
is  the  fundamental  idea  of  what  is  called  "  Free 
Love." 

But  it  is  important  to  remember  that  there  are 
two  utterly  different  and  antagonist  passions  which 
are  called  love.  One  is  of  the  earth,  earthy;  the 
other,  heavenly.  The  distinction  is,  that  one  is 
selfish,  the  other  generous.  The  one  seeks  its 
own,  —  its  own  gratification,  its  own  pleasure.  It 
wishes  to  be  the  object  of  sympathy  and  admira- 
tion. The  other  does  not  seek  to  receive,  but  to 
give ;  gives  itself,  and  all  it  has.  It  does  not  seek 
its  own.  It  seeks  to  bless,  to  benefit,  to  shed  good 
on  its  object.  The  earthly  love  is  seeking  to  draw 
all  things  to  itself;  it  is  never  satisfied.  The 
heavenly  love,  the  only  true  love,  goes  out  of  itself, 
forgets  itself,  surrenders  and  sacrifices  itself;  and  so 
never  tires,  and  is  undying  and  unchanging. 

Love  to  God  and  love  to  man  are  the  same  princi- 
ple acting  in  two  directions.  But  each  activity  needs 
the  other  to  keep  it  strong.  The  Apostle  says,  "  If 
you  do  not  love  man,  whom  you  see,  how  can  you 
love  the  invisible  God  ?"     Most  true  !    But  it  is  also 


LOVE.  413 


true  to  say,  "  If  you  do  not  love  God,  who  is  infinite, 
perfect  goodness,  how  can  you  love  man,  who  is  only 
finite  and  imperfect  goodness  ? "  To  love  man  aright, 
you  must  love  God  in  him,  and  find  him  the  Divine 
child  of  heaven.  To  love  God  aright,  you  must  learn 
to  love  him  as  you  learn  to  love  man,  going  out  of 
yourself  in  sympathy,  affection,  and  surrender  of 
heart  and  soul. 

How  do  children  come  to  love  their  father  and 
mother?  Not,  certainly,  by  being  told  it  is  their 
duty  to  love  them,  but  because  their  father  and 
mother  love  them.  They  find  themselves  surrounded 
by  a  perpetual  presence  of  thought,  care,  affection ; 
every  want  foreseen,  every  danger  guarded  against, 
every  feeling  sympathized  with.  The  father  and 
mother,  if  they  are  true  parents,  are  the  home,  the 
shrine,  the  inmost,  safest  sanctuary  of  the  child's 
heart.  He  runs  in  to  them,  and  is  safe.  He  has 
entire  confidence  in  them;  he  tells  them  all  his 
troubles.  The  little  boy  in  the  street,  astonished  by 
some  unkindness  from  his  companion,  says,  "  I  will 
tell  my  mother,  if  you  do  that."  He  is  sure  that 
motherly  love  will  make  everything  right.  Entire 
confidence,  reliance,  dependence,  —  that  is  the  way 
in  which  love  begins  in  the  child's  heart. 

Now,  this  was  made  to  be  the  emblem,  the  per- 


414  COMMON-SENSE  IN   RELIGION. 

petual  illustration,  of  the  beginnings  of  love  to  God. 
Piety  naturally  begins  in  this  same  way,  in  the 
sense  of  a  universal  presence,  surrounding,  guarding, 
providing  for  us.  This  is  our  Father's  house,  into 
which  we  have  come.  This  land  and  sea  and  sky ; 
this  splendor  of  sun  and  beauty  of  moon  and  stars ; 
this  charm  of  springtime  and  summer ;  this  museum 
of  curiosities  to  be  studied  and  wondered  at ;  this 
gallery  of  pictures  in  nature  ;  this  education  in  work, 
joy,  sorrow,  health,  sickness,  pleasure,  pain,  —  all 
this  comes  from  the  Heavenly  Father  and  Mother 
of  us  all.  And  when  anything  goes  wrong  we  can 
tell  our  Father  about  it,  and  all  will  be  right. 

Now,  this  is  something  which  all  can  feel;  this 
natural  piety  all  can  have,  for  these  gifts  are  uni- 
versal. "His  sun  shines  and  his  rain  falls  on  the 
evil  and  good,  the  grateful  and  the  unthankful." 
When  a  child  behaves  badly,  and  has  done  wrong,  he 
knows  that  he  has  grieved  his  father  and  mother, 
and  will  be  punished  for  it ;  but  it  never  occurs  to 
him  that  they  will  turn  him  out  of  doors,  or  cease  to 
care  for  him.  He  is  still  their  child.  So  we,  what- 
ever we  do,  are  still  God's  children.  He  does  not 
turn  us  out  of  doors.  His  house  is  our  home  still. 
Our  brothers  and  sisters  may  disown  us  and  despise 
U5,  but  the  father  and  mother  do  not. 


LOVE.  415 


**  With  other  influences,  thou,  0  Nature, 
Healest  thy  wandering  and  diseased  child. 
Thou  pourest  on  him  thy  tender  influences, 
Thy  sunny  hues,  fair  forms,  and  breathing  sweets, 
Thy  melodies  of  woods  and  winds  and  waters." 

But  when  we  say  nature  we  mean  God.  God,  in 
nature  and  providence,  perpetually  provides  for  all 
his  children.  He  makes  it  easy  for  all,  good  and 
evil,  to  take  this  first  step  in  love  to  him,  which 
consists  in  a  child's  trust  and  reliance.  This  is  the 
first  step  of  love,  —  that  of  a  child. 

The  next  is  the  love  which  friends  feel  for  each 
other.  Why  do  I  love  my  friend  ?  Because  I  see 
in  him  something  noble,  true,  good.  I  love  my 
father  and  mother  with  a  love  of  reliance;  but  I 
love  my  friend  with  a  love  of  admiration.  I  find 
something  in  his  soul  which  strengthens  mine.  He 
arouses  within  me  my  better  nature.  He  calls  out 
qualities  which  I  did  not  know  I  had.  He  reveals 
me  to  myself.  Out  of  the  abundance  of  his  life  he 
feeds  mine.  Such  was  the  noble  friendship  which 
Shakespeare  describes  in  his  sonnets  as  the  "  mar- 
riage of  true  minds " ;  as  the  love  "  which  looks 
on  tempests  and  is  never  shaken." 

*'  Let  me  not  to  the  marriage  of  true  minds 
Admit  impediments.     Love  is  not  love 
"Which  alters  when  it  alteration  finds. 
Or  bends  with  the  remover  to  remove. 


416  COMMON-SENSE  IN   RELIGION. 


0  no  !  it  is  the  ever-fixed  mark 

Which  looks  on  tempests  and  is  never  shaken  ! 

It  is  the  star  to  every  wandering  bark, 

"Whose  worth  's  unknown,  although  its  height  is  taken. 

Love  's  not  Time's  fool,  though  rosy  lips  and  cheeks 

Within  his  bending  sickle's  compass  come  ; 

It  alters  not  with  our  brief  days  and  weeks, 

But  bears  it  out,  even  to  the  edge  of  doom. 

If  this  be  error,  and  on  me  be  proved, 

1  never  writ,  and  no  man  ever  loved. " 

Such  was  the  love  which  Tennyson  bore  to  his 
friend  Hallam,  and  immortalized  in  his  In  Memo- 
riam.  Such  was  the  love  of  Goethe  for  Schiller, 
which  he  also  has  painted  in  undying  verse. 

"  For  he  was  ours.     And  may  that  word  of  pride 
Drown,  with  its  lofty  tone,  pain's  bitter  cry. 
With  us,  the  fierce  storm  over,  he  could  ride 
At  anchor,  in  safe  harbor,  quietly. 
Yet  onward  did  his  mighty  spirit  stride 
To  beauty,  goodness,  truth,  —  eternally. 
And  far  behind,  in  mists  dissolved  away, 
That  which  confines  us  all,  the  common,  lay. 

Burned  in  his  cheek,  with  ever-deepening  fire, 
The  spirit's  youth,  which  never  passes  by  ; 
The  courage  that,  when  worlds  in  hate  conspire, 
Conquers,  at  last,  their  dull  hostility  ; 
The  lofty  faith,  which,  ever  mounting  higher, 
Now  presses  on,  now  waiteth  patiently  ; 
With  which  the  good  tends  ever  to  his  goal, 
With  which  day  meets,  at  last,  each  noble  sbul." 


LOVE.  417 

All  that  reveals  to  us  grandeur,  nobleness,  purity, 
integrity,  is  a  revelation  of  God.  As  we  reverence 
these,  we  are  really  learning  to  love  him.  Thus 
every  good  man  is  a  revelation  of  God  to  us,  and 
helps  us  to  love  him  better  than  before.  We  shall 
learn  to  love  God  by  recognizing  that  all  human 
goodness  is  from  him.  That  is  what  Jesus  meant 
when  he  refused  to  be  called  good.  "Why  callest 
thou  me  good  ?  There  is  none  good  but  one,  that  is, 
God."  "The  Son  can  do  nothing  of  himself,  but 
what  he  seeth  the  Father  do."  The  goodness  of 
Jesus  is  a  revelation,  and  the  greatest  revelation  ever 
made  to  man,  of  the  goodness  of  God.  That  is  the 
great  glory  of  Christ,  to  be  a  revelation  of  his  Father. 
That  is  the  true  view  of  his  Divinity,  that  we  look 
through  him  and  see  God.  But  if  we  do  not  also 
see  something  divine  in  the  goodness  around  us,  if 
we  have  no  faith  in  human  goodness  here,  then  that 
of  Jesus  will  grow  unreal,  and  lose  its  power.  As 
Jesus  is  the  mediator  of  the  goodness  of  God,  so  all 
good  men  and  women  are  channels  through  which 
this  goodness  of  Jesus  flows  into  the  world,  and  they 
all  lift  us  to  the  sight  of  a  divine  beauty,  holiness, 
and  purity. 

This  is  the  second  step  in  love,  —  to  learn  to  love 
and  adore  true  nobleness  in  all  men.     It  is  very  bad 

18  AA 


418  COMMON-SENSE  IN   RELIGION. 

to  doubt  human  virtue,  because  we  then  cut  the 
electric  chain  which  binds  us  all  to  God.  If  we  find 
nothing  to  love  in  man  whom  we  have  seen,  how  can 
we  find  anything  to  love  in  God  ?  We  may  say  that 
God  is  good ;  but  it  will  be  a  mere  empty  word  till 
it  has  acquired  meaning  by  our  knowledge  of  human 
goodness.  He  therefore  who  has  learned  to  question 
earthly  virtue  has  also  learned  to  deny  the  holiness 
of  God.  Cynicism  is  infidelity.  But  an  undying 
faith  in  something  really  good  in  all  men  is  a  Jacob's 
ladder  by  which  earth  is  connected  with  heaven. 

The  third  step  in  love  is  that  of  man  and  wife; 
and  this,  both  in  Scripture  and  in  all  religious  lit- 
erature, has  been  made  the  type  of  the  devotion  of 
the  soul  to  God. 

The  essence  of  the  purest  love  is  self-dedication, 
self-surrender,  each  living  in  the  life  of  another  per- 
son who  is  one's  real  self,  and  so  not  another  person. 
It  is  the  highest  form  of  love,  because  the  most 
generous.  It  "  does  not  seek  its  own."  "  It  beareth 
all  things,  beUeveth  all  things,  hopeth  all  things, 
endureth  all  thin^."  It  finds  its  happiness  in  giving, 
not  receiving.  It  is  to  be  found,  in  essence,  not 
merely  in  marriage,  but  out  of  it,  wherever  love  is 
truly  a  communion  of  souls,  and  whenever  two  be- 
come really  one. 


LOVE.  419 

But  see  by  what  a  beautiful  process  this  generous 
love  is  born  in  two  young  hearts.  They  are  drawn  to 
each  other  by  some  mysterious  personal  attraction, 
they  know  not  how  or  w^hy.  Each  is  taken  out 
of  self  by  this  powerful  charm.  Each  is  made,  per- 
haps for  the  first  time  in  life,  truly  glad  in  the  glad- 
ness of  another  soul.  Each  finds  joy  in  giving  joy. 
It  is  not  hard  self-denial,  but  easy  self-surrender.  At 
first  a  blind  attraction,  it  grows  into  a  deliberate  and 
rational  choice.  It  becomes  self-conscious,  intelligent, 
conscientious,  reasonable ;  and  this  without  losing  the 
original  underlying  charm.  It  is  the  easiest  of  all 
possible  ways  for  educating  man  and  woman  out  of 
selfishness  into  a  noble  self-sun-ender ;  out  of  a  narrow 
individualism  into  a  perfect  oneness.  'Nov  is  it  con- 
fined to  technical  marriage,  for  souls  may  be  thus  mar- 
ried in  mutual  self-dedication.  Friends  may  thus  live 
from  and  for  each  other.  In  fact,  whenever  any  kind 
of  love  becomes  wholly  generous,  it  partakes  of  this 
higher  quality.  It  is  love  that  serves,  love  that  gives, 
love  that  seeks  not  its  own,  love  which  is  really  love. 

And  so  we  learn  to  love  God  by  giving  ourselves 
to  him,  by  serving  him,  by  doing  his  will.  Love 
to  God  is  thus  born  of  self-dedication.  Having 
learned  how  to  love  man  without  selfishness,  we  can 
love  God  in  the  same  way. 


420  COMMON-SENSE  IN  RELIGION. 

All  the  loves  of  this  world,  then,  are  meant  to 
educate  us  to  the  love  of  God.  We  take  the  first 
step  when  we  begin  to  love  our  father  and  mother ; 
for  so  we  learn  that  part  of  piety  which  is  reliance 
on  a  higher  power,  a  higher  wisdom,  and  a  higher 
goodness.  We  take  the  next  step  when  we  form 
friendships  for  those  in  whom  we  find  good  and  great 
qualities ;  for  so  we  learn  the  piety  which  is  adora- 
tion and  reverence.  We  take  the  third  step  when  we 
love  others  for  their  sake  rather  than  our  own ;  being 
drawn  out  of  ourselves  toward  husband  or  wife,  to- 
ward our  children,  and  toward  all  whom  we  can  help. 
So  we  learn  the  piety  which  is  self-devotion  and 
union,  —  union  of  heart  with  heart,  soul  with  soul, 
spirit  with  spirit. 

All  the  loves  of  man  are  meant  to  be  turned  into 
love  to  God.  All  the  love  we  have  learned  in  this 
world  is  a  preparation  for  a  Divine  love.  It  only 
needs  to  take  a  new  direction  to  become  Divine  love. 
If  one  can  love  man,  he  can  love  God.  If  he  can 
love  God,  he  can  love  man. 

The  greatest  scientific  discovery  of  the  present 
time  is  said  to  be  that  of  the  correlation  and  conser- 
vation of  forces.  It  means  that  there  is  one  force 
underlying  all  forces;  now  taking  one  form,  now 
another.    It  is  now  motion,  then  heat,  then  electricity. 


LOVE.  421 


then  magnetism,  then  chemical  affinity.  So  in  the 
spiritual  world  all  forces  of  the  sonl  are  the  same, 
and  he  who  has  one  can  have  the  rest.  Therefore  it 
is  that  in  the  New  Testament  faith  is  sometimes 
made  the  whole  of  religion,  and  sometimes  hope  is 
said  to  be  the  source  of  salvation,  and  sometimes  we 
are  told  if  we  obey  the  Commandments  we  shall 
enter  into  hfe,  and  then  we  are  taught  that  love  is 
the  fulfilhng  of  the  law.  They  are  all  one  and  the 
same.  They  take  different  forms  according  to  the 
position  of  the  souL  But  he  who  has  really  one  has 
all.  If  a  man  can  really  trust  God,  then  he  can  obey 
him.  If  he  can  really  obey,  then  he  can  believe  ;  if 
he  can  love  his  brother  as  himself,  he  can  love  God. 
If  he  can  love  God,  then  he  can  love  his  brother. 

But  to  lead  a  true  life  this  central  principle  must 
act  in  all  directions.  It  will  not  do  to  say,  "  Because 
I  have  faith  I  need  not  work ;  because  I  have  piety  I 
do  not  need  morahty ;  because  I  do  my  duties  it  is 
not  necessary  to  be  religious ;  because  I  love  man 
I  may  dispense  with  the  love  of  God."  "  Faith  with- 
out works  is  dead,  being  alone."  Work  without  faith 
as  its  root  is  a  barren  tree  that  produces  little  fruit. 
We  must  rise  out  of  the  love  of  man  into  the  love 
of  God ;  we  must  descend  out  of  the  love  of  God  into 
the  love  of  man.     So  all  of  our  life  becomes  vital* 


422  COMMON-SENSE  IN  RELIGION. 

full,  vigorous,  progressive ;  we  leave  the  dead  past  be- 
hind, and  reach  on  to  a  better  future. 

So  we  may  learn  to  love  God  by  cherishing  a  more 
entire  and  childlike  trust  in  his  fatherly  care,  amid 
all  the  changes  and  chances  of  our  life.  We  may 
rely  on  him  as  the  best  and  nearest  friend,  who  never 
will  forsake  us  in  time  or  eternity.  From  this  trust- 
ing love  we  can  ascend  a  step  higher  into  the  love 
which  adores  the  Divine  beauty  in  all  of  nature, 
through  all  of  providence,  in  the  goodness  of  all  good 
men,  and  especially  sees  it  imaged  and  reflected  in 
the  life  of  Jesus,  the  Son  of  God.  And  then  we  may 
make  this  love  one  of  intimate  union  by  devoting 
ourselves  freely  and  entirely  to  God's  service,  by  giv- 
ing to  him  our  heart,  by  making  it  our  meat  and 
drink  to  do  his  will,  by  that  habit  of  prayer  which 
consists  in  always  asking  and  always  receiving 
heavenly  influence  for  daily  work  and  daily  life. 

People  sometimes  say  "  To  work  is  to  pray."  This 
is  true,  and  it  is  not  true.  To  work  in  the  highest 
way  is  to  pray ;  to  pray  in  the  highest  way  is  to 
work.  Jesus  prayed  when  he  was  working,  for  he 
kept  his  soul  open  toward  God  to  receive  inspiration, 
while  he  stretched  out  his  hand  toward  man  to  do 
good.  Work  that  is  full  of  heavenly  inspiration  is 
a  mode  of  prayer,  just  as  heat  is  a  mode  of  motion. 


LOVE.  423 


But  to  go  through  a  routine  of  outward  duties  me- 
chanically is  neither  praying  nor  working.  And 
prayer,  to  be  true  prayer,  must  be  prayer  looking  at 
work  for  its  end ;  prayer  that  says  "  Thy  will  be  done 
on  earth  " ;  prayer  that  holds  in  its  soft  embrace  all 
the  human  hearts  we  are  to  meet  in  our  day's  task 
and  toil  To  say  one's  prayers  as  a  duty,  to  pray  for 
a  selfish  good,  to  go  through  the  routine  of  prayer  as 
a  priest  reads  his  Breviary  in  the  railroad-car,  so 
many  hours, a  day,  —  that  is  neither  prayer  nor  work. 
Inspired  prayer  is  work,  inspired  work  is  prayer ;  but 
routine  prayer  and  routine  work  are  neither  one  nor 
the  other. 

We  must  grow  into  the  love  of  God  as  w^e  grow 
into  the  love  of  man.  And  the  two  best  methods 
of  this  growth  are,  first,  to  study  the  character  of 
God  as  revealed  in  that  of  Jesus  ;  secondly,  to  medi- 
ate that  character  to  others  by  living  in  the  same 
spirit.  As  we  look  at  the  life  of  Jesus  we  seem  to 
draw  near  to  his  Father  and  our  Father,  to  his  God 
and  to  our  God.  God  is  no  longer  strange  or  far  off, 
and  we  see  w^hy  it  is  that  the  Church  has  called 
Jesus  God.  When  we  see  the  moon  reflected  in  a 
perfectly  still  lake,  we  do  not  say,  "  There  is  a  lake," 
but  we  say,  "There  is  the  moon."  We  become 
acquainted  with  God  through  the  gospel,  as  in  no 


4^4  COMMON-SENSE  IN   RELIGION.     • 

other  way.  In  no  other  way,  except  in  this  one 
other  way,  —  of  personal  communion  and  intercourse, 
by  personal  service.  The  best  way  of  all  is  by  living 
ourselves  as  Jesus  did,  from  God,  for  man.  Thus 
there  grows  up  quietly  and  imperceptibly  a  sense  of 
personal  union  with  God,  and  we  know  what  Jesus 
meant  when  he  said  "I  and  my  Father  are  one." 


XX. 

THE   BROTHERHOOD  OF  MAN, 


XX. 

THE  BROTHERHOOD  OF  MAN". 

In  Paul's  speech  to  the  Athenians  he  said  that 
"  God  hath  made  of  one  blood  all  nations  of  men  to 
dwell  on  all  the  face  of  the  earth."  That  is  perhaps 
one  of  the  strongest  texts  of  Scripture  teaching 
human  brotherhood,  —  teaching  that  all  men  are 
brethren.  The  brotherhood  of  man  is  eminently  a 
Christian  doctrine ;  even  the  idea  is  a  Christian  idea. 
Transient  gleams  of  this  light  may  have  previously 
flashed  across  the  human  mind ;  as  when  the  Roman 
poet  Terence  said,  in  one  of  his  plays,  "  I  am  a  man, 
and  nothing  which  belongs  to  man  is  foreign  to  me," 
and  the  crowded  theatre  rose,  as  one  man,  in  re- 
sponse to  the  great  sentiment.  Nevertheless,  race, 
language,  nationality,  so  separated  men  in  antiquity, 
that  they  thought  no  more  of  the  rights  of  a  foreign 
people  than  we  do  of  the  rights  of  the  wild  beasts 
of  the  forests,  or  fish  of  the  stream.  There  was  an 
aged  and  respectable  man  in  Massachusetts,  who 
was  formerly  in  the  habit  of  going  into  the  Adiron- 
dack woods,  slaughtering  the  deer  for  their  skins, 


428  COMMON-SENSE   IN  RELIGION. 

and  throwing  away  the  carcasses  of  the  animals  ; 
until  at  last  the  very  guides,  sick  of  such  reckless 
destruction,  refused  to  go  with  him,  and  so  drove 
him  from  the  woods.  But  as  this  venerable  man 
felt  to  the  deer,  so  the  backwoodsmen  feel  toward 
the  Indians ;  so  the  slave-traders  feel  toward  the 
Africans ;  so,  before  the  coming  of  Christ,  and  long 
after  his  coming,  the  Jews  felt  to  the  Gentiles,  the 
Greeks  felt  to  the  barbarians,  the  Eomans  felt  to 
every  race  and  nation  which  they  trampled  under 
their  iron  heel. 

I  take  my  rod  and  stroll  out,  of  a  lovely  summer 
morning,  and  wade  in  the  cool  stream,  and  drag  out 
one  fish  after  another  simply  for  my  amusement. 
But  when  I  come  home  I  am  troubled  in  my  con- 
science, and  I  say,  "  These  are  my  fellow-creatures  ! 
God,  who  made  the  world  and  all  things  therein, 
gave  to  these  trout  this  cool  rushing  water  in  which 
to  live;  what  right  have  you  to  rob  them  of  their 
innocent  lives,  and  butcher  them,  to  make  yourself  a 
morning's  holiday  ?  "  I  think  I  probably  feel  more 
ashamed  of  kilhng  the  trout  than  the  hundred 
thousand  Romans  felt,  when,  sitting  in  the  Flavian 
amphitheatre,  they  rejoiced  and  shouted  over  the 
gladiators  murdering  each  other  for  their  pastime. 

Here  is  a  passage  I  met  in  Max  Muller's  Science 


THE  BROTHERHOOD   OF   MAN.  429 

of  Language.  It  has  more  weight  because  it  comes 
not  from  a  professed  theologian,  but  from  a  man  of 
science.  Thus  he  speaks :  "  It  was  Christianity 
which  first  broke  down  the  barriers  between  Jew  and 
Gentile,  between  the  Greek  and  barbarian,  between 
the  white  and  the  black.  Humanity  is  a  word 
which  you  look  for  in  vain  in  Plato  or  Aristotle,  — 
the  idea  of  mankind  as  one  family,  as  the  children 
of  one  God,  is  an  idea  of  Christian  growth ;  and  the 
science  of  mankind  and  of  the  languages  of  mankind 
is  a  science  which,  without  Christianity,  would  never 
have  sprung  into  life.  When  people  had  been 
taught  to  look  upon  all  men  as  brethren,  then,  and 
then  only,  did  the  variety  of  human  speech  present 
itself  as  a  problem  to  be  solved,  —  and  I  therefore 
date  the  real  beginning  of  the  science  of  language 
from  the  Day  of  Pentecost." 

But  what  is  human  brotherhood?  What  do  we 
mean  by  it  ? 

Consider  the  love  of  brothers  and  sisters  for  each 
other.  What  is  its  nature  and  conditions  ?  It  is  a 
very  peculiar  and  beautiful  feeling.  Brothers  and 
sisters  may  have  very  different  tastes,  difterent  occu- 
pations, different  enjoyments.  Their  opinions  may 
differ,  —  one  shall  be  orthodox,  the  other  liberal, 
one  is  conservative  and  another  radical,     ^o  mat- 


430  COMMON-SENSE  IN' RELIGION. 

ter,  the  sweet,  strong  tie  of  fraternal  love  runs  below- 
all  this  diversity,  and  holds  them  together.  "  My 
brother  ! "  "  My  sister  ! "  these  are  sacred  words  ; 
they  have  a  charm  which  outlasts  many  affections 
which  seem  for  a  time  far  more  ardent.  Other  loves 
come  and  go;  this  remains.  Our  brothers  and  sis- 
ters belong  to  us,  and  always  will.  No  caprice  can 
touch  this  relation,  no  misunderstanding  alter  it,  no 
jealousy  torment  it,  no  cold  alienation  freeze  it.  It 
is  like  the  love  on  which  death  hath  set  its  seal ;  no 
rivals  can  take  it  from  us,  no  falsehood  disallow  it. 
In  a  world  of  change  and  decay,  how  satisfactory  are 
these  relations  which  rest  on  a  foundation  so  solid 
and  sure  !  The  little  children  who  played  together 
before  their  father's  door;  who  walked  together  to 
school,  hand  in  hand ;  who  confided  to  each  other 
their  youthful  joys  and  pains ;  who  have  been  near 
to  help  each  other  in  the  accidents  of  life ;  who  have 
grown  into  men  and  women  side  by  side,  —  they  can 
have  a  confidence  in  each  other,  a  mutual  reliance, 
which  scarcely  any  other  relation  may  supply.  I 
recollect  three  old  men,  brothers,  each  eminent  in  his 
own  way,  whom  I  used  to  see  walking,  arm  in  arm, 
around  Boston  Common.  Every  day  they  met  and 
took  their  walk  together.  The  snows  of  seventy 
years,  which  had  whitened  their  hair,  had  not  chilled 


THE  BROTHERHOOD   OF  MAN.  431 

one  throb  of  the  love  which  they  brought  up  from 
their  childhood,  when  they  clustered  together  in 
their  mother's  lap,  slept  together  in  the  same  little 
bed,  played  together  around  the  same  fireside.  The 
learned  judge,  the  wise  and  good  physician,  the  ener- 
getic Massachusetts  manufacturer,  were  brothers,  and 
nothing  else,  every  day  for  an  hour,  during  their 
morning  walk.  Such  is  natural  brotherhood.  It 
rests  on  these  three  facts :  that  brothers  have  the 
same  father  and  mother,  that  they  will  always  be 
brothers  and  sisters,  and  that  their  interests  are 
common.  They  have  the  same  home,  the  same  rela- 
tives, the  reputation  and  honor  of  the  family  is 
equally  dear  to  all. 

But  now  there  is  another  kind  of  brotherhood,  — 
a  spiritual  brotherhood,  of  which  the  natural  broth- 
erhood is  a  type.  The  Jews  called  each  other 
"  brethren  "  ;  .  not  merely  as  descended  from  Father 
Abraham,  but  as  having  the  same  faith  and  the 
same  religious  institutions.  The  Apostles  said  to  the 
Jews,  "Men  and  brethren,  this  scripture  must  be 
fulfilled "  ;  "  Men  and  brethren,  let  me  freely  speak 
to  you  of  the  patriarch  David "  ;  "  Men,  brethren, 
and  fathers,  hearken "  ;  "  Men  and  brethren,  chil- 
dren of  the  stock  of  Abraham,  be  this  known 
unto    you,  and  hear    my  words."      Paul,  defending 


432  COMMON-SENSE  IN  RELIGION. 

himself  before  the  Jewish  Sanhedrim,  still  called 
them  "brethren."  "Men  and  brethren,  fathers, 
hear  my  defence ! "  "  Men  and  brethren,  I  am  a 
Pharisee,  son  of  a  Pharisee."  "Men  and  brethren, 
I  have  lived  in  all  good  conscience  toward  God  to 
this  day."  Here  is  the  natural  brotherhood  extend- 
ed so  as  to  include  all  of  one  nation  and  religion. 
This  is  the  first  widening  out  of  the  principle  of 
brotherhood. 

But  immediately,  as  soon  as  Christianity  came, 
there  arrived  a  further  extension.  The  sense  of  the 
brotherly  relation  was  enlarged  so  as  to  take  in  the 
Gentiles  also  who  believed  in  Jesus.  One  faith  now 
made  one  brotherhood.  Now  Paul,  writing  to  Chris- 
tians in  Eome,  Corinth,  Ephesus,  Thessalonica,  Asia 
Minor,  calls  them  all  brothers  and  sisters.  In  this 
cold  world,  where  so  much  selfishness  abounds,  what 
a  blessing  to  find  brothers  and  sisters  in  every  place 
where  you  may  go !  If  Christianity  had  done  only 
this,  it  would  have  been  a  great  gift.  Paul  says,  "  Let 
us  go  again  and  visit  our  hrethren  in  every  city." 
Such  is  the  divine  power  of  a  common  faith. 

The  men  who  a  year  ago  were  strangers  to  Paul, 
who  would  have  treated  him  with  cold  contempt 
and  let  him  perish  at  their  door  unaided,  now  are 
his  brothers  and  he  theirs.     He  can  visit  no  part  of 


THE  BROTHERHOOD   OF  MAN.  433 

the  world  and  not  find  brethren.  After  his  stormy- 
voyage  on  the  Mediterranean,  he  arrives,  a  weather- 
beaten  traveller,  in  the  Bay  of  Naples.  He  lands  on 
an  unknown  shore  at  Puteoli,  lonely  amid  the  luxu- 
rious villas  of  the  Eoman  Senators,  which  crowded 
the  opposite  coast  of  Baia.  But,  no  !  he  is  not  alone. 
We  read  in  the  record,  "  We  came  the  next  day  to 
Puteoli  [now  Pozzuoli],  where  we  found  brethren,  and 
were  desired  to  tarry  with  them  seven  days;  and  so  we 
went  to  Eome.  And  from  thence,  when  the  brethren 
heard  of  us,  they  came  to  meet  us  as  far  as  Appii 
Forum  and  the  Three  Taverns;  whom  when  Paul  saw 
he  thanked  God  and  took  courage."  Well  might  he 
do  so  !  0  happy  power  of  a  common  faith,  which 
gives  us  brothers  and  sisters  wherever  we  go !  O 
compensation  for  suffering,  shipwreck,  martyrdom,  to 
find  brotherly  love  awaiting  one  in  strange  lands,  no 
longer  strange  !  0  gracious  and  blessed  faith,  which 
gives  us  brothers  and  sisters  in  every  clitne,  and 
makes  the  world  no  longer  a  dreary,  empty,  selfish 
scene,  but  one  happy  family !  I  also,  walking  in 
the  streets  of  Pozzuoli,  felt  my  brotherhood  to  the 
Apostle  Paul ;  and,  going  to  the  Appian  Way,  along 
which  he  went  to  Eome,  pleased  myself  in  thinking 
that  my  feet  might  stand  where  his  had  stood  so 
many  hundred  years  ago. 

19  BB 


434  COMMON-SENSE  IN  EELIGION. 

One  night  I  wandered  alone,  without  an  acquaint^, 
ance,  in  a  Flemish  city.  1  knew  not  a  soul  in  the 
place,  not  one  who  even  spoke  my  own  language. 
But,  passing  through  the  great  square,  I  saw  a  dim 
light  on  the  cathedral  windows,  and  went  in.  An 
earnest  man  was  preaching  to  a  little  company  in  a 
side  aisle  of  the  mighty  building.  A  few  lamps 
showed  the  faces  of  the  hearers  amid  the  columns 
which  rose  in  the  darkness  like  the  trees  of  a  forest. 
I  also  went  and  sat  among  them,  and  heard  the  tones 
of  faith,  prayer,  and  love ;  and  though  I  under- 
stood nothing,  I  felt  it  all,  and  was  not  alone.  I  was 
among  brethren  and  sisters. 

This  was  what  Jesus  meant,  when,  while  he  was 
talking  to  the  people,  one  came  interrupting  him  and 
saying,  "  Behold !  thy  mother  and  brethren  stand 
without,  desiring  to  speak  to  thee  ! "  And  Jesus  said, 
"  Who  is  my  mother,  and  who  are  my  brethren  ? " 
Then  he  looked  on  the  disciples  and  the  hearers,  and 
said,  "  Behold  my  mother  and  my  brethren !  For 
whosoever  listens  to  God's  truth,  and  obeys  it,  is  my 
mother  and  sister  and  brother ! " 

This  is  the  true  Church  of  Christ.  It  does  not 
consist  in  altars,  priests,  ritual,  ceremony,  nor  in 
profession,  in  creed,  in  doctrine.  It  consists  in  the 
sight  of  a  common  truth,  which  warms  the  heart  and 


THE  BROTHERHOOD   OF   MAN.  435 

gives  US  a  new  hope,  peace,  love.  The  Christian 
Church  was  not  founded,  it  came,  —  came  in  this  new 
spirit  of  brotherly  love,  shared  by  all  who  had  the 
same  sight  of  the  Heavenly  Father.  "  One  is  your 
Master,"  said  Jesus,  "  and  all  ye  are  brethren." 

Thus  Christianity,  at  first,  extended  the^  Jewish 
sense  of  brotherhood,  making  it  include  all  who  be- 
lieved in  Jesus.  Thus  it  created  a  new  human  affec- 
tion. It  added  another  sentiment  to  the  human  soul, 
it  gave  another  pulse  to  the  human  heart.  And  more 
than  this,  when  it  said,  "God  is  the  Father  of  all, 
who  loves  all  men,  who  will  have  all  men  to  be 
saved  and  come  to  the  knowledge  of  the  truth,  who 
loves  all  his  children,  Greeks  and  Gentiles,  Jews 
and  barbarians,  the  Hindoo  in  India,  the  negro 
tribes  in  Africa,  the  red  Indian  in  America;  when 
it  proclaimed  salvation  for  all,  rescue  from  sin,  a 
common  immortality,  a  common  heaven;  when  it 
sent  out  its  missionaries  to  teach,  all  nations,  bap- 
tizing them  into  the  name  of  the  Father,  Son,  and 
Holy  Ghost, —  then  it  broke  down  ALL  partition- walls, 
and  established  the  brotherhood  of  man.  Jesus 
himself  led  the  way  and  gave  the  example  when 
he  went  among  publicans  and  sinners,  when  he 
talked  with  the  Samaritan  woman,  and  thus  taught 
his  disciples  to  call  no  man  common  or  unclean. 


436  COMMON-SENSE  IN  RELIGION. 

Why,  then,  are  we  still  so  far  from  carrying  out 
this  doctrine  ?  We  talk  of  the  brotherhood  of  man ; 
but  war  exists,  slavery  exists,  terrible  distinctions 
of  classes  exist,  even  in  the  most  Christian  lands. 
More  than  that,  —  Christian  churches  do  not  yet  rec- 
ognize that  they  are  brethren  to  all  men.  They  deny 
the  name  of  Christians  to  those  who  do  not  belong 
to  their  church,  who  do  not  believe  in  their  creed, 
who  do  not  worship  in  their  way.  They  refuse  to 
commune  with  those  who  have  not  been  baptized  by 
immersion;  they  excommunicate  those  who  cannot 
pronounce  their  shibboleth.  Until  the  Church  be- 
lieves in  human  brotherhood,  we  cannot  expect  the 
world  to  believe  in  it.  While  Christians  think  .that 
God  will  cast  off  forever  all  the  heathen,  and  also  all 
Christians  who  are  not  Christians  in  their  own  way, 
it  is  clear  that  they  have  and  can  have  no  feeling  of 
brotherhood  toward  any  outside  of  their  own  little 
sect.  If  God  has. disinherited  heretics,  and  does  not 
regard  them  as  his  children,  they,  of  course,  cannot 
regard  them  as  their  brothers.  This  is  the  reason  why 
war,  slavery,  inhumanity,  still  prevail  so  largely  in 
the  world;  it  is  because  bigotry  and  sectarianism  pre- 
vail so  largely  in  the  Church.  A  true  theology  must 
precede  a  genuine  humanity.  A  new  heavens  must 
make  a  new  earth.     "Yet  once  more  I  will  shake 


THE  BROTHERHOOD   OF  MAN.  437 

the  earth  and  the  heavens."  There  must  be  a  heaven- 
quake,  if  there  is  to  be  an  earthquake.  That  is  why 
we  wish  to  spread  a  broad  and  generous  Christianity. 

"We  have  seen  that  the  natural  tie  of  brotherhood 
includes  three  elements.  Brothers  have  the  same 
father  and  mother  who  love  them  all  impartially. 
They  will  remain  always  brothers  and  sisters.  There- 
fore they  have  a  common  home,  common  interests,  a 
common  welfare.  "  If  one  suffers,  all  sufier ;  if  one 
is  happy,  all  are  so." 

No  practical  human  brotherhood  will  prevail  until 
we  have  the  like  convictions  in  respect  to  mankind. 
We  shall  not  regard  all  men  as  our  brethren  until  we 
believe  that  God  is  their  Father,  and  that  he  loves 
them  all  equally.  But  we  cannot  believe  that  he 
loves  them  all  equally  while  we  believe  that  he 
means  to  save  some  of  them  because  they  have  been 
born  in  America,  and  brought  up  as  Christians,  and 
that  he  will  reject  others  because  they  were  born  in 
Africa  or  India,  and  were  brought  up  as  heathen. 
We  cannot  believe  that  he  loves  all  as  his  children 
while  we  think  that  he  means  to  make  some  ever- 
lastingly happy  in  heaven  because,  when  infants, 
without  any  will  of  theirs,  they  were  baptized  into 
a  particular  church,  and  that  he  will  condemn  others 
to  a  perpetual  exile  from  his  presence,  because  their 


438  COMMON-SENSE  IN  RELIGION. 

parents  did  not  put  a  little  water  on  their  fore- 
heads when  they  were  children.  We  cannot  believe 
that  God  is  the  universal  Father,  if  we  think  that  he 
will  punish  men  hereafter  for  involuntary  ignorance 
or  honest  error. 

It  is  for  this  reason  that  I  prize  and  value  a  re- 
ligion of  common-sense.  It  makes  it  possible  to 
love  God  and  to  love  man.  I  know  that  men  are 
better  than  their  creeds,  and  that  many  who  hold 
these  narrow  doctrines  are  full  of  humanity  and 
universal  benevolence.  But,  in  the  long  run,  our 
belief  concerning  God  and  man  will  affect  our  hearts 
and  lives.  If  we  think  that  heretics  and  heathen 
are  not  objects  of  God's  saving  love,  that  they  are 
to  be  cast  out  forever  from  his  heaven,  that  we  and 
they  are  not  to  live  together  hereafter,  but  apart,  that 
they  have  not  the  same  interest  in  Christ  that  we 
have,  that  they  are  outside  of  the  covenanted  mer- 
cies of  God,  —  then  we  may  pity  them  and  be 
sorry  for  them,  but  we  cannot  regard  them  with 
brotherly  love,  for  they  are  not  our  brothers  in  any 
true  sense. 

I  prize  and  value  aU  broad  and  rational  Christian- 

^  ity,  because  it  teaches   us    that  all    men  are    God's 

children,  and  aU  dear  to  him ;  that  he  has  made  of 

one  blood   all  men  on  the  face  of  the  earth,  and 


%  •■       ■    . 

THE  BROTHERHOOD   OF  MAN.  439 

determined  beforehand  their  habitation ;  that  he  will 
give  them  all,  in  this  life  and  in  the  life  to  come, 
all  the  good  they  are  capable  of  receiving;  that  he 
punishes  no  one,  in  this  world  or  in  any  other  world, 
out  of  ^\Tath,  or  from  cold  justice,  but  only  because 
they  need  it,  and  because  it  will  do  them  good. 
It  teaches  that  God  sees  more  faith  in  honest 
doubt  than  in  passive  assent  to  any  truth ;  that  if 
we  fall  into  error  or  sin  ignorantly  and  uninten- 
tionally, he  owes  us,  not  punishment,  but  compensa- 
tion. It  teaches  that  in  the  other  world  Lazarus 
will  probably  go  up  and  Dives  go  down  ;  not  because 
God  loves  Lazarus  more  than  Dives,  but  because  those 
who  have  had  a  hard  time  will  be  better  for  having 
an  easy  time,  and  those  who  have  had  an  easy  time 
will  be  better  for  having  a  hard  time.  Eational  and 
liberal  Christianity  teaches  that  God  intends  all  men 
to  be  saved  some  time,  somewhere ;  that  he  means  by 
an  infinitely  varied  discipline,  and  by  innumerable 
roads,  to  bring  all  together  at  last ;  that,  however,  he 
will  never  compel  us  to  go  to  heaven,  or  make  us 
happy  till  we  are  ready  to  make  ourselves  happy  by 
doing  right;  that  he  will  not  spare  pain,  hardship, 
discipline,  outer  darkness,  and  sharp  trial,  in  order 
to  purify,  elevate,  and  redeem  us.  It  teaches  that  he 
intends  to  bring  all  mankind  into  his  kingdom,  into 


440  COMMON-SENSE  IN  KELIGION. 

one  great  brotherhood,  in  which  Judas  Iscariot  and 
the  Apostle  Paul  will  shake  hands ;  and  God's  will 
shall  at  last  be  done  willingly,  freely,  and  joyfully, 
by  all  his  children. 

This  is  what  the  religion  of  common-sense  teaches, 
and  this  alone  can  make  men  regard  each  other  as 
brethren.  If  we  believe  that  every  man  is  God's 
child,  and  dear  to  him ;  that  God  sees  in  him  some- 
thing good,  something  worth  saving,  and  that  he 
means  to  save  him;  that  all  are  to  make  progress, 
and  all  to  go  up ;  and  that  we  shall  all  be  to- 
gether in  one  heaven  and  one  great  kingdom  of 
God,  then  we  can  really  feel  that  all  men  are  our 
brothers.  This  broad  Christianity  alone  can  make 
men  feel  and  act  as  brethren. 

It  is  for  this  I  value  it,  and  feel  bound  to  urge  it. 
I  have  many  friends  among  the  Orthodox  denomi- 
nations, and  I  like  many  things  in  their  churches,  — 
better,  perhaps,  than  in  my  own.  But  every  Or- 
thodox creed  teaches  the  everlasting  damnation 
of  a  portion  of  the  human  race,  —  teaches  that  God 
has  made  and  keeps  up  a  great  apparatus  of  torture, 
where  men  are  to  be  tormented  forever,  without  any 
hope  or  any  end.  It  is  impossible  to  believe  in 
human  brotherhood  so  long  as  this  doctrine  is  main- 
tained.    Those  whom  God  looks  upon  as  so  foul  as 


THE  BROTHERHOOD   OF  MAN.  441 

to  be  forever  unfit  for  his  society,  we  ought  not 
to  regard  *as  fit  for  ours.  Moreover,  some  Orthodox 
creeds  teach  that  human  salvation  depends  on  holding 
certain  opinions,  and  that  those  who  even  honestly  re- 
ject them  will  be  forever  lost.  No  good  father  would 
condemn  his  child  for  an  honest  error  of  opinion ;  if 
God  does  so,  he  does  not  treat  them  as  his  children, 
and  we  ought  not  to  treat  them  as  brothers.  I  there- 
fore feel  bound  to  oppose  such  Orthodox  systems  until 
they  renounce  those  dishonorable  views  of  the  char- 
acter of  God ;  for  so  long  as  they  are  maintained  and 
taught,  the  brotherhood  of  man  is  impossible. 

The  Scriptures  teach  us  that  the  time  will  come 
in  which,  every  knee  shall  bow  to  Christ,  and  every 
tongue  confess  that  he  is  Lord,  to  the  glory  of  God 
the  Father.  I  believe,  with  all  my  heart,  that  this 
is  so.  But  that  time  is  to  come,  not  by  any  miracle, 
not  by  any  special  providence,  but  by  the  truth  and 
love  which  are  in  Jesus,  and  by  his  gospel  being  seen 
and  known.  This  will  cause  men  to  bow  to  him. 
Because  he  is  the  best,  purest,  and  noblest  of  all 
beings,  and  because  his  truth  is  adapted  to  all  our 
wants,  all  will  bow  to  him.  His  authority  is  in  the 
supreme  beauty  and  perfection  of  his  doctrine  and  his 
infl,uence.  But  this  must  be  shown  to  others  by 
those  who  themselves  are  influenced  by  it.    As  Christ 

19* 


442  COMMON-SENSE  IN  EELIGION. 

reveals  God  to  man  by  his  life  and  words,  so  Chris- 
tians, by  their  lives  and  words,  must  reveal  Christ  to 
their  fellow-men.  We  must  show  that  we  believe  in 
human  brotherhood  by  sympathizing  with  all,  despis- 
ing none,  seeking  those  who  are  in  sorrow  and  need, 
and  becoming  to  them  mediators  of  the  love  of  God 
in  Christ.  It  is  for  this  that  the  Church  exists ;  to 
reveal  Christ  to  men  by  doing  Christ-like  works,  and 
going  forth  in  his  name  to  seek  and  to  save  those 
who  are  lost.  Let  Christians  endeavor  to  do  this 
work,  and  so  prove  that  they  really  believe  in  the 
fatherhood  of  God  and  the  brotherhood  of  man. 

The  churches,  if  they  do  nothing  else,  keep  alive 
this  sense  of  the  greatness  of  humanity.  Elsewhere 
we  meet  classes  of  men,  this  or  that  kind  of 
man;  in  the  Church  we  met  man.  At  school  we 
meet  scholars ;  at  the  polls  we  meet  voters ;  at  balls 
and  parties  we  meet  our  own  set;  in  shops  and 
in  Wall  Street  we  meet  business  people.  Every- 
where else  we  find  variety,  separation,  men  divided 
into  parties,  clubs,  societies,  according  to  their  tastes. 
But  in  the  Church  man  meets  man  on  the  common 
ground  of  humanity.  The  fashionable  people  and 
those  whose  lives  are  cold,  gray,  plain,  meet  before 
God.  Those  who  live  for  pleasure,  and  those  who 
live  to  do  good,  the  idler  and  the  hard  worker,  the 


THE  BROTHERHOOD  OF  MAN.  443 

public  man  and  the  man  of  privacy,  the  student  and 
the  man  of  action,  gray  hairs  leaning  toward  the 
grave,  childhood  just  leaving  the  cradle,  —  all  meet 
together,  on  one  level,  before  God.  If  I  did  not 
go  to  church  for  anything  else,  I  should  go  for 
this.  The  sermon  might  be  stupid,  —  then  I  should 
not  listen  to  it.  The  prayers  might  not  suit  me, 
—  then  I  should  pass  them  by.  The  music  might 
grate  on  my  ear,  —  I  should  try  not  to  hear  it.  But 
I  should  at  least  see  human  faces ;  I  should  meet 
humanity, —  not  rich  men  or  poor  men,  not  great  men 
or  little,  but  men.  One  would  stand  before  me 
greater  than  the  Temple,  greater  than  its  liturgy,  its 
prayers,  its  priests,  its  ritual, — my  brother  man, 
bowed  before  my  father,  God.  This  would  make  to 
me  the  Church  a  home,  whether  it  were  Catholic  or 
Protestant,  Presbyterian,  Quaker,  or  Methodist.  I 
would  not  lose  this  great  influence ;  for  it  tends  to 
humanize  our  life  and  join  us  to  our  race,  opposing 
the  tendency  to  caste,  to  cliques,  to  all  narrowness, 
by  its  broad  inclusion. 


THE  END. 


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